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THE   FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK   •    BOSTON   •    CHICAGO 
DALLAS  •   ATLANTA   •    SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON   •    BOMBAY  •CALCUTTA 
MELBOIffiNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TOKONTO 


THE  FARMER  OF 
TO-MORROW 


BY 

FREDERICK  IRVING  ANDERSON 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
1913 


i:,^^^ 


CJorrBioHT,  1912 

Bt  the  ridgway  company 


COPTRIOHT,  1913 

Bt  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 


Set  up  and  Eleotrotyped.    Published  April,  1918 


PREFACE 

The  author  has  sought  to  bring  together  in 
one  volume  a  popular  consideration  of  the  two 
fundamental  factors  affecting  the  business  of 
farming:  first,  the  floor  space  of  the  American 
farmer  in  terms  of  land,  and,  second,  the  re- 
sources of  the  land  itself,  in  terms  of  soil  fer- 
tility. The  inter-relation  of  these  two  factors 
must  determine  eventually  the  type  of  farm- 
ing of  any  community. 

"Where  shall  I  locate  my  plant?"  is  the 
prime  question  the  man  who  goes  back  to  the 
land  to-day  must  ask  himself.  Free  land  is 
gone;  the  rich  homesteads  of  a  decade  or  two 
ago,  to  be  had  for  the  asking,  have  forever 
passed  into  history.  Yet  there  are  opportuni- 
ties for  the  business  farmers  of  to-day  un- 
dreamed of  by  their  ancestors  of  a  generation 
or  two  ago  to  whom  land  was  nothing  but  a 
means  of  labor.  Less  than  one-half  of  the  nine 
hundred  million  acres  in  the  hands  of  the 
farmer  is  improved;  nearly  two-thirds  of  this 


vi  PREFACE 

land  nominally  in  farms  has  not  yet  been  called 
on  to  produce  food.  There  are  swamps  to  be 
drained,  cut-over  forests  to  be  cleared,  deserts 
to  be  watered,  and  dry  lands  to  be  made  pro- 
ductive by  specialized  crops  and  methods. 
Without  increasing  the  efficiency  of  its  im- 
proved acres,  the  nation  still  possesses  enough 
resources  in  terms  of  land  alone  to  feed  double 
the  population  that  exists  to-day.  It  has  been 
the  author's  endeavor  to  chart  this  empire  of 
opportunity  that  awaits  the  gleaner  in  the 
period  of  reclamation  which  is  now  setting  to- 
ward flood  tide. 

The  problem  of  the  fertility  of  the  soil  is 
one  of  national  importance;  it  determines  not 
only  the  fortunes  of  the  farmer  in  the  field, 
but,  in  the  end,  the  life  of  the  nation.  For  gen- 
erations past,  agricultural  literature  has  been 
buried  under  a  theory  of  doom  imposed  by  a 
great  chemist,  Liebig,  which  teaches  that  the 
resources  of  the  soil  are  as  definite  as  cash  in 
a  bank  or  coal  in  a  mine.  Under  this  orthodox 
theory  which  actuates  the  machinery  of  the 
greater  part  of  agricultural  education  as  it 
exists  to-day,  the  farmer  must  feed  the  soil  if 
he  would  have  the  soil  continue  to  feed  him.  Fail- 
ing this,  it  has  been  variously  computed  that 


PREFACE  vii 

our  soils,  cropped  for  a  scant  three  genera- 
tions, contain  only  enough  mineral  elements  to 
continue  producing  food  for  seventy-five,  one 
hundred,  or  one  hundred  and  fifty  years.  The 
sole  means  offered  to  forestall  this  inevitable 
day  of  doom  is  the  use  of  chemicals  as  fertili- 
zers, limited  in  supply  themselves;  a  system 
which  carried  to  its  logical  conclusion  consid- 
ers the  soil  merely  as  a  mixing  bowl  in  which 
food  may  be  manufactured  synthetically. 

Recently,  however,  there  has  been  put  for- 
ward a  more  logical  and  less  pessimistic  hy- 
pothesis concerning  the  fertility  of  the  soil — a 
hypothesis  fathered  by  the  scientists  compos- 
ing the  federal  Bureau  of  Soils  at  Washing- 
ton and  backed  by  a  long  series  of  classic  ex- 
periments, as  well  as  by  the  teachings  of  his- 
tory. This  theory  assumes  the  mineral  ele- 
ments of  the  soil  to  be  inexhaustible,  an  as- 
sumption which  the  history  of  China,  whose 
soils  are  unimpaired,  indeed  are  the  richest  in 
the  world  after  4,000  years  of  intensive  culti- 
vation, seems  to  justify. 

An  examination  of  this  new  hypothesis,  in 
the  light  of  orthodox  criticism,  shares  the 
pages  with  a  consideration  of  the  extent  of  our 
land  resources. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTEB  PAGE 

I.     The  Farmer  of  Yesterday     ....  1 

II.     The  Line  of  Least  Resistance     ...  34 

III.     The  Gleaners 68 

IV.     The  Dry  Lands  and  the  Forests      .      .  98 

V.     The  Division  of  Soils  and  the  Speciali- 
zation OF  Crops 141 

VI.     The  Bookkeeping  Theory  of  Soil  Fer- 
tility      173 

VII.     The  Soil  as  an  Immutable  Asset       .      .  212 

VIII.     The  Evidence  of  History  and  Research  243 

IX.     Soil  Sanitation 272 

Conclusion 300 


THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 


"The  soil  is  the  one  indestructible,  immuta- 
ble asset  that  the  Nation  possesses.  It  is  the 
one  resource  that  cannot  be  exhausted;  that 
cannot  be  used  up.  It  may  be  impaired  by 
abuse,  but  never  destroyed." 

Milton  Whitney. 


FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

CHAPTER  I 

THE    FARMER    OF    YESTERDAY 

James  Fenimore  Cooper,  writing  in 
1827,  marveled  that  in  his  own  lifetime  he 
had  seen  frontiersmen,  lovers  of  the  wild, 
driven  from  the  forests  of  the  upper  Hudson 
across  the  prairies  of  the  Middle  West,  finally 
to  take  refuge  amid  the  arid  plateaus  and 
mountain  wildernesses  of  the  Great  American 
Desert,  before  the  advancing  tide  of  settle- 
ments. The  backwoodsmen  of  Kentucky  and 
Tennessee  had  begun  to  move  on  into  the  un- 
known regions  beyond  the  Mississippi  as  early 
as  1804,  almost  before  the  actual  transfer  of 
the  territory  of  Louisiana  had  become  a 
fact.  Lewis  and  Clark,  in  their  historic  march 
from  St.  Louis  to  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia 
River,  begun  in  1804,  found  white  men  before 

1 


ft         THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

them,  mostly  Canadian  French,  hght -hearted, 
care-free  wanderers  who  had  come  in  from 
Montreal  through  the  Straits  of  Mackinac  at 
the  confluence  of  Lake  Michigan  and  Lake 
Huron  and  established  a  well-defined  route  of 
travel  to  the  plains  beyond  the  Mississippi  by 
way  of  Green  Bay  and  the  Fox  and  Wis- 
consin Rivers. 

Still,  as  late  as  1832,  Washington  Irving, 
journeying  up  the  Missouri  and  out  across  the 
plains  in  search  of  information  as  to  the  "far 
west"  at  first-hand,  conceived  the  "Great 
American  Desert"  as  a  territory  so  remote, 
so  mythical  in  its  confines  and  so  terrible  in 
its  hardships  that  he  believed  it  would  never 
become  an  integral  part  of  the  States.  In- 
stead, he  pictured  fantastically  the  growth 
there  of  another  nation,  a  nation  that  would 
forever  exist  beyond  the  pale  of  civilization, 
a  nation  composed  of  outcasts,  half-breeds, 
the  scum  of  society;  a  race  of  men  so  wild, 
so  lawless,  so  adventurous  that  they  had  al- 
ready adopted  the  worst  traits  of  the  savage 
Indians  as  their  own  and  become  the  blood- 
brothers  of  the  red-men  of  the  plains. 

He  pictured  this  roving  mongrel  horde 
pushed  farther  and  farther  back  by  the  exten- 


THE    FARMER    OF    YESTERDAY         3 

sion  of  settlements  of  law  and  order,  until  final- 
ly they  would  be  forced  to  bond  together  for 
self-protection  in  the  heart  of  the  desert;  and 
from  them  in  time  would  spring  an  entity  with 
traditions  and  ethics  founded  on  barbarism 
and  outlawry.  Yet  he  himself  lived  to  see  "the 
Great  American  Desert"  as  a  name  wiped 
out  of  memory,  and  law  and  order  established 
in  the  Great  Plains  region  which  once  he  had 
confidently  predicted  would  never  yield  to  the 
plow. 

The  Oregon  Trail  had  already  become  a 
fact  in  1846,  and  a  year  or  two  later  saw 
Mormon  regiments  that  had  fought  in  the 
Mexican  War  moving  slowly  across  the  plains 
and  over  the  mountain  barrier  with  their 
families  and  cattle,  to  be  mustered  out  in 
California.  In  another  year  came  the  rush  of 
gold-seekers,  and  before  another  decade  had 
elapsed  the  country  west  of  the  Mississippi 
had  become  sufficiently  populous  to  be  rent 
asunder  by  the  political  question  of  States' 
rights.  Cooper,  the  novelist,  writing  again 
in  1847,  pointed  with  pride  to  the  million  and 
one-half  souls  which  constituted  the  popula- 
tion of  the  State  of  New  York,  yet  he  ven- 
tured the  prediction  that  the  agricultural  re- 


4  THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

sources  of  that  State  were  so  vast  as  to  feed 
its  people  "for  ages  to  come." 

These  recorded  facts  relate,  we  might  al- 
most say,  to  contemporary  history,  the  his- 
tory of  to-day.  In  1909  there  were  still  395 
widows  of  the  War  of  1812  on  the  pension 
roll  of  the  government,  and  2,459  soldiers  of 
the  war  with  Mexico  still  survived.  It  was 
only  yesterday  that  our  grandfathers  went 
"west"  with  their  yokes  of  oxen  and  iron  ket- 
tles, considering  themselves  very  well  outfitted 
indeed;  and  selected  fertile  river  bottoms 
where  the  most  desultory  cultivation  removed 
them  from  want. 

Following  the  Civil  War  came  the  Home- 
stead Act,  and  out  across  the  prairies  swept 
the  disbanded  armies  checking  off  the  sections 
square  by  square ;  moving  like  a  cloud  of  wild 
pigeons,  platoons  from  the  rear-guard  con- 
stantly detaching  themselves  and  taking  their 
place  at  the  head  of  the  ever-advancing 
column. 

Land,  land,  the  illimitable  land,  the  magic 
carpet  with  a  rainbow  at  one  end! 

Then  came  the  period  of  the  late  'eighties, 
the  period  of  over-colonization,  overproduc- 
tion— too    much    land,    too    much    food,    an 


THE    FARMER    OF    YESTERDAY         5 

economic  crisis  quite  as  catastrophic  in  its  way 
as  famine.  There  was  no  one  so  poor  as  the 
farmer,  nothing  so  cheap  as  corn,  except  hogs 
on  the  hoof,  and  grain  became  fuel.  In  the 
few  decades  following  the  Civil  War,  agricul- 
ture had  emerged  from  its  pastoral  stage 
wherein  each  community  had  been  sufficient 
unto  itself.  A  contagion  of  railroad  building 
cut  up  the  prairies,  bringing  world  markets, 
exchange,  and  perplexing  wants  into  a  region 
which  heretofore  had  been  its  own  butcher, 
baker  and  candle-stick  maker.  This  period  of 
too  much  land,  too  much  food,  and  over- 
development in  transportation  that  glutted 
the  world  market,  brought  about  a  decline  in 
values  which  did  not  reach  its  low  ebb  until 
as  late  as  1896.  In  this  connection  it  is  worthy 
of  note  that,  when  a  British  railroad  com- 
mission recently  reported  to  its  government  on 
American  Railroading,  it  explained  the  ef- 
ficiency of  our  railroads  as  being  due  to  the 
penny-pinching  attention  to  details  which  grew 
out  of  receiverships.  Practically  all  our  great 
railroad  systems  of  the  present  day  are  the 
reconstruction  of  the  bankruptcies  of  the  late 
'eighties  and  early  'nineties. 

It  was  then  that  our  Jeremiahs,  relics  of  a 


6         THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

pastoral  period,  came  back  from  the  land. 
The  period  is  within  the  memory  of  the  rising 
generation  when  the  tide  turned  toward  the 
cities;  when  nothing  was  so  cheap  as  land, 
and  whole  townships  were  abandoned  to  mort- 
gages that  could  not  be  satisfied.  Jeremiah 
the  Reaper,  who  had  gone  forth  seeking  a 
"homestead,"  saw  a  miserable  old  age,  and 
his'  sons  mounted  high  stools  and  adjusted 
high-power  spectacles  and  became  book- 
keepers. It  was  much  better  to  buy  two-cent 
hogs  than  to  sell  them. 

All  of  which  brings  us  to  our  Jeremiah  of 
the  present  day,  who  wants  to  go  back  to  the 
land. 

This  Jeremiah  of  to-day  is  a  strange  prod- 
uct. He  is  a  fact,  yet  he  is  a  glaring  fallacy. 
He  is  a  son  of  the  Land,  a  son  of  sons  of 
generations  of  the  Land;  yet  in  the  one  or 
two  decades  that  have  passed  since  he  turned 
his  back  on  the  Land,  too  much  Land,  Land 
as  a  curse,  he  has  involved  himself  and  his 
fellows  in  a  situation  of  such  complexity  that 
two  out  of  every  three  hours  he  toils  for  his 
bread  are  devoted  to  the  intricate  process  of 
bringing  to  his  own  door  that  same  bread,  the 


THE    FARMER    OF    YESTERDAY  7 

product  of  the  Land,  without  which  he  must 
die.  It  has  not  yet  occurred  to  him  in  the 
mass  that  he  has  developed  concentration  and 
congestion  to  a  point  so  remote  from  the  pas- 
toral ideal  of  his  forefathers  that  he  has 
created  the  greatest  anomaly  of  Waste  in  his- 
tory, a  condition  in  which  the  simple  act  of 
distribution  of  food  has  become  infinitely  more 
complex  than  the  basic  process  of  production 
itself. 

He  has  built  cities — 228  of  which  boast  over 
25,000  population;  50  more  than  100,000;  19 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  million;  5  more  than 
half  a  milhon,  and  3  from  1,500,000  to  5,000,- 
000.  He  has -constructed  steel  mills  (a  single 
corporation  employing  more  than  200,000 
souls),  not  only  to  transport  the  surplus  of 
food,  clothing  and  luxuries  to  world  markets, 
but  to  feed,  clothe  and  amuse  himself  in  the 
very  act  of  doing  it.  He  has  devised  a  system 
of  banking  and  exchange  as  clumsy  and  timid 
as  a  rabbit,  to  move  crops.  He  has  acquired 
steamships,  canals,  telephones  and  telegraphs, 
marvelous  systems  of  intercommunication, 
capitalized  at  ten  times  the  value  of  the  na- 
tion's farm  lands  that  he  knew  a  generation 
ago — capitalized   at   stupendous   figures    not 


8  THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

only  in  response  to  the  demands  of  general 
manufactures,  but  also  because  he  has  chosen 
to  turn  his  back  on  Land,  and  created  the 
necessity  of  delivering  his  food  from  his  hand 
to  his  mouth.  Around  him  are  clerks,  stenog- 
raphers, merchants  to  administer  to  his  needs, 
carpenters,  masons,  plumbers,  artisans  of  hun- 
dreds of  specialized  trades,  lawyers,  doctors, 
ministers  for  his  material  and  spiritual  needs, 
and  actors,  musicians  and  buffoons  to  make 
him  happy,  merely  for  the  purpose  of  permit- 
ting him  to  toil  that  he  may  live. 

It  would  be  an  interesting  task  to  determine 
(or  to  attempt  to  determine,  for  the  task  would 
be  difficult)  how  great  a  percentage  of  the 
population  of  five  million  souls  who  constitute 
the  city  of  New  York  have  their  entire  time 
employed  in  the  process  of  feeding  their  fel- 
lows— who,  by  their  efforts,  produce  nothing 
but  the  means  of  transporting  food  to  satisfy 
their  own  hunger — who  elect  to  devote  their 
lives  to  the  task  of  moving  food  from  the 
spot  where  it  is  produced  in  abundance  to  the 
spot  where  it  is  not  produced  at  all.  It  is  a 
far  cry  indeed  from  the  Jeremiah  of  to-day  to 
the  simple  pastoral  self-sufficiency  of  his  an- 
cestors.   Yet  the  population  of  the  cities  is  be- 


THE    FARMER    OF    YESTERDAY         9 

ing  recruited  in  increasing  numbers  from  the 
farms.  It  is  too  late  to  turn  back  the  hands 
of  the  clock,  though  we  still  persist  in  the 
fiction  that  we  are  an  agricultural  nation. 

Look  at  Jeremiah  for  a  moment.  He  is, 
say,  thirty-five,  and  lives  in  a  flat.  He  works 
eight  hours,  sleeps  nine,  and  spends  the  re- 
mainder of  his  day  in  his  carpet  slippers  and 
street  cars. 

Light,  air,  fuel  and  water,  the  products  of 
Nature,  are  fed  to  him  through  tubes ;  vacuum 
and  gravity  are  harnessed  for  his  light  house- 
keeping. The  municipality,  of  which  he  is  a 
member  in  good  standing,  disposes  of  his  waste 
paper  and  potato  peelings ;  regulates  noise  and 
smell;  inspects  his  food;  guarantees  him  so 
many  cubic  feet  of  air  to  sleep  in,  a  minimum 
bacterial  count  of  50,000  to  the  c.  c.  in  his 
morning's  milk,  and  a  ladder  in  case  of  fire; 
assumes  the  supervision  of  the  eyes,  teeth  and 
intellect  of  his  children;  polices  him,  sweeps 
his  streets,  counts  him  at  birth,  marriage  and 
death  and  at  the  polls,  fumigates  him,  makes 
music  for  him  in  the  parks,  and  keeps  him  off 
the  grass. 

All  that  is  left  for  Jeremiah  is  to  work  eight 
hours  a  day  and  keep  on  good  terms  with  his 


10        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

janitor.  And  a  paternal  automatism  extracts 
its  tithes  by  a  process  at  once  so  complex  and 
so  lulling  that  it  borders  on  the  mystic.  He 
is  not  even  enumerated  as  a  "tax-payer."  He 
buys  bread  by  the  pound,  potatoes  by  the 
quart  and  eggs  by  the  ounce,  and  milk,  signed, 
sealed  and  delivered  in  glass.  Every  time  he 
expends  one  dollar  for  food,  thirty-five  cents  of 
it  is  edible,  and  sixty-five  cents  goes  for  wrap- 
ping paper  and  string,  interstate  commerce, 
and  demurrage.    Jeremiah  is  a  consumer. 

But  Jeremiah  dreams  of  the  days  of  his 
youth:  of  the  wood  pile,  the  evening  chores, 
the  frozen  pump,  apples  that  have  never 
known  a  feather-duster,  and  the  great  shadowy 
barn  with  its  fragrant  haymow  and  its  row 
of  soft-eyed  placid  cows.  Jeremiah  and  Mary 
— ^they  met  and  married  in  a  boarding  house 
— take  the  subway  to  Van  Cortlandt  Park  or 
the  ferry  boat  to  Staten  Island  every  Sunday 
to  walk  on  the  grass.  The  lure  of  the  land  is 
in  their  souls,  and  they  wear  rubber  heels  on 
their  shoes. 

A  remote,  an  almost  hypothetical  aunt 
names  them  in  her  will.  This  opens  a  door — 
because  in  all  his  years  of  toil  he  has  been 
spending  so  much  in  bringing  his  food  from 


THE    FARMER    OF    YESTERDAY       11 

the  farm  that  he  has  never  been  able  to  save 
enough  to  go  back  to  the  farm  where  the  food 
comes  from.  Jeremiah  resigns  his  high  stool, 
his  high-power  spectacles  and  his  green  shade, 
and  a  through  Pullman  sets  Jeremiah  and 
Mary  down  on  a  willow-bank,  where  he  was 
born  and  raised. 

Let  us  say  that  this  was  in  Iowa,  because 
Iowa  as  a  State  presents  in  a  mass  the  con- 
ditions developed  in  our  national  life  in  that 
brief  interval  between  the  time  when  Jeremiah 
turned  his  back  on  the  Land,  and  to-da^y, 
when  he  seeks  to  return. 

Yes,  this  is  home.  But  somehow  things  do 
not  look  the  same.  There  is  an  extra  wing 
on  the  house  and  a  second  story  has  been  added ; 
it  is  freshly  painted  and  shingled  and  wears 
green  blinds.  There  is  a  red  barn  with  white 
battens,  housing  a  glistening  gang  plow  and  a 
binder,  and  a  pair  of  ton  horses  with  big 
creases  in  their  backs  are  browsing  in  the  feed 
lot.  There  is  a  wind-mill  and  a  telephone, 
and  hot-and-cold  water,  and  woven  wire 
fences,  and  a  suspicious  odor  of  gasoline. 

"Here  is  the  screw  loose,"  thought  Jere- 
miah.     "The    farmer    is    making   too    much 


12        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

money.  There  are  too  many  consumers  and 
not  enough  producers.  The  farmer  has  got 
hold  of  the  gate  receipts.    I  am  glad  I  came." 

"Well,  well,"  laughed  the  willow-bank 
farmer  as  he  looked  Jerry  over,  "I  remember 
you  as  a  little  shaver.  I  bought  this  farm 
from  your  father  at  ten  dollars  an  acre.  I 
tried  to  worm  out  of  the  deal  but  the  old  man 
held  me  to  it." 

"I  was  born  here,"  said  Jeremiah,  gazing 
sentimentally  at  the  willow-bank — it  did  look 
like  home,  after  all.  "I  should  like  to  buy  the 
farm  back  if  it  is  for  sale." 

Yes,  this  was  the  very  quarter-section  that 
Jeremiah's  grandfather  drew  out  of  the  grab- 
bag,  back  in  the  'forties,  when  the  West  was 
a  magic  carpet  with  a  rainbow  at  one  end, 
when  one  had  to  hunt  over  five  square  miles 
in  this  neighborhood  to  find  a  whole  person, 
excluding  Indians  not  taxed.  Yes,  this  was 
the  very  spot  where  the  old  gentleman  culti- 
vated hogs  with  long  legs  as  beasts  of  burden 
to  carry  hams  and  bacon  to  market.  (Later, 
when  railways  came,  they  bred  the  legs  down 
to  nubbins,  for  delicatessen.)  Yes,  this  was 
the  very  spot  where  less  than  thirty  years  ago 
Jeremiah's  father  fed  his  corn  to  the  stove. 


THE    FARMER    OF    YESTERDAY       13 

because  there  was  too  much  corn  and  too  many 
hogs,  and  not  enough  people  in  the  whole 
world  to  eat  the  hogs;  when  there  was  no- 
body so  poor  as  the  farmer. 

And,  standing  before  him  now,  was  the  very 
man  who  had  gone  down  in  the  traditions  of 
the  family  as  having  been  hooked  and  landed 
by  the  second  generation  of  Jeremiahs  at  ten 
dollars  an  acre.  The  memory  of  that  ten  dol- 
lars had  bathed  the  declining  days  of  the 
second  generation  in  sunshine. 

And  here  was  the  third  generation,  looking 
wistfully  at  the  fat  fields  crowding  the  fence 
posts,  wondering  what  had  become  of  the 
swamp,  the  wood  lot,  the  hog-wallow,  and  the 
mud  road. 

"Ten  dollars  an  acre!"  Jeremiah  was  mus- 
ing to  himself.  He  was  dreaming  of  the  magic 
carpet  with  a 

And  the  willow-bank  farmer  .  .  .  What 
was  he  dreaming  about?  He  was  dreaming 
of  Saskatchewan.  He  was  anxious  to  scamper 
across  the  map  with  his  three  stalwart  sons  to 
the  last  tee.  He  liked  the  looks  of  this  senti- 
mental young  couple.  He  would  do  his  best 
to  arrange  matters  for  them. 

Not  on  the  basis  of  corn  as  fuel,  however. 


14        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

He  was  figuring  on  dollar  wheat,  sixty-cent 
corn,  and  ten-cent  hogs. 

All  his  land  nominally  in  farm  was  real 
farm.  It  w^as  mellow  prairie  loam,  the  mold 
of  centuries,  from  fifteen  to  one  hundred  feet 
deep.  It  was  rich,  and  ripe  for  skinning — 
one  hundred  acres  of  it. 

The  average  farmer  ought  to  consider  his 
plant  above  the  average  of  his  State.  But  the 
willow-bank  farmer  would  figure  himself  be- 
low. He  would  even  throw  off  seven  dollars 
and  forty-four  cents  and  four  mills — and  call 
it  an  even  fifteen  thousand  dollars. 

One  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  an  acre! 

Jeremiah  untied  his  livery  horse  and  assisted 
Mary  to  her  seat,  and  they  drove  slowly  back 
to  town,  leaving  the  willow-bank  farmer 
tinkering  over  a  new  gasoline  thrashing  outfit. 
They  remembered  having  read  somewhere  that 
Dean  Liberty  H.  Bailey,  of  the  lamented 
Country  Life  Commission,  had  said  that  the 
back-to-the-land  movement  was  an  economic 
fallacy.  But  they  remembered  this  only  for 
the  moment.  Economic  fallacies  have  to  do 
with  masses,  not  individuals.  If  the  willow- 
bank  farmer  could  buy  automobiles  and  wear 
green  shutters  on  his  house,  Jeremiah  and 


THE    FARMER    OF    YESTERDAY       15 

Mary  could  do  likewise  with  the  same  tools. 
So  they  drove  back  to  the  farm  the  next  day. 

The  willow-bank  farmer  was  inclined  to  be 
generous.  He  accepted  a  payment  of  two 
thousand  dollars  cash  (which  had  been  earn- 
ing six  per  cent,  in  an  industrial  investment) ; 
and  he  accepted  a  mortgage  of  thirteen  thou- 
sand dollars  at  six  per  cent. 

In  other  words,  Jeremiah  and  Mary  were 
to  pay  nine  dollars  an  acre  rent.  Land  is 
capital!  That  was  reasonable  and  business- 
like. Jeremiah  and  Mary  were  going  into  the 
business  of  manufacturing  food. 

And  the  farmer,  rather  than  put  the  sen- 
timental young  couple  to  the  expense  of  buy- 
ing machinery,  rented  them  his.  He  did  not 
know  much  about  such  transactions ;  but  Jere- 
miah, having  been  a  bookkeeper  in  his  role 
of  consumer,  knew  all  about  it.  He  suggested 
ten  per  cent,  for  depreciation,  and  six  per  cent, 
interest.  A  farmer,  or  a  manufacturer,  re- 
places his  machinery  every  ten  years,  on  the 
average;  and  this  seemed  equitable.  No  in- 
dustrial concern  could  pay  a  dividend  and 
keep  out  of  the  hands  of  the  postal  authorities 
without  debiting  a  like  charge  to  equipment. 


16        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

So  much  for  his  plant  and  equipment.  Now 
for  the  item  of  labor. 

Jeremiah  didn't  have  any  sons  of  his  own. 
He  couldn't  pay  his  labor  in  board  and  cloth- 
ing and  salt.  He  had  to  hire  labor.  Twenty 
cents  an  hour  for  human  labor,  and  ten 
cents  an  hour  for  horses — including  care  and 
keep. 

And  he  concluded  that  if  hired  labor  was 
worth  twenty  cents  an  hour,  his  own  labor 
was  worth  twent)'^  cents  an  hour. 

And  he  concluded  that  if  a  scrubwoman 
was  worth  five  cents  an  hour,  Mary  was  worth 
five  cents  an  hour.  Mary  cooked  and  washed 
and  ironed  and  sewed  and  darned  and  swept 
and  dusted  and  made  the  beds  and  looked 
after  the  chickens  and  nursed  the  garden  and 
churned  butter  and  set  the  milk.  She  was 
labor. 

He  concluded,  furthermore,  that  there  were 
profits — or  recompense,  at  least — due  to  him- 
self as  the  superintendent  who  managed  and 
risked  so  much  capital. 

In  addition,  there  were  the  taxes  and  in- 
surance— say  three  per  cent,  on  a  three-fifths 
valuation. 

Jeremiah,  j^ou  see,  was  entering  the  business 


THE    FARMER    OF    YESTERDAY        17 

of  farming.  He  was  a  bookkeeper  and  he 
knew  all  about  costs  of  production. 

Jeremiah  is  the  new  pioneer.  Cheap  land, 
free  land,  is  gone.  When  there  is  no  more 
land  to  give  away,  land  becomes  capital, 
exacts  rent.  No  matter  whether  the  price  is 
too  high  or  too  low,  it  is  fixed  by  culture  and 
sentiment  and  speculation;  by  three  genera- 
tions of  homesteading,  and  by  a  population 
that  has  increased  fourfold  in  seventy  years. 

Are  Jeremiah's  fixed  charges,  his  cost  of 
production,  too  high?  Ask  yourself,  Mr. 
Farmer,  you  of  the  Middle  West,  of  the  Rain 
Belt,  you  who  are  producing  the  surplus  for 
hungry  mouths.  You  say  that  your  land — 
which  may  happen  to  be  in  the  door-yard  of 
the  Grain  Pit  and  the  Stock  Yards — ^is  worth 
more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  an 
acre.  You  say  that  your  neighbor's  land,  land 
in  the  next  county,  in  the  next  State,  is  worth 
less  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars.  If 
your  acre  does  not  exact  the  same  rent  as 
Jeremiah's  then  the  process  of  distribution 
makes  up  the  difference. 

What  does  your  labor  cost  you  ?  How  much 
does  it  cost  you  to  grow  an  acre  of  corn?  You 
don't  know!     Hired  labor,  paid  for  by  the 


18        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

hour,  day,  week,  or  month,  was  beyond  the 
experience  of  fifty-two  per  cent,  of  the  Iowa 
farmers  canvassed  by  the  1910  census.  Forty- 
eight  per  cent,  of  them  reported  expenditures 
for  labor  at  one  time  or  another.  They  knew 
how  much  hired  labor  cost  them.  But  how 
much  their  own  labor  cost,  how  much  it  was 
worth,  they  did  not  know.  And  the  Census 
Bureau  did  not  think  it  worth  while  to  inquire. 

Several  years  ago  experts  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture  picked  out  five  thousand 
wide-awake  farmers  all  over  the  country  and 
asked  them  to  cooperate  with  the  department 
in  running  down  the  question  of  labor.  How 
much  did  it  cost  them,  in  time  or  wages,  to 
grow  an  acre  of  corn,  labor  to  be  charged  at 
prevailing  rates? 

In  New  England  an  acre  of  corn  cost 
$16.82,  not  counting  "rent";  in  the  South  At- 
lantic States,  $11.29;  in  the  Middle  West, 
from  $9.10  to  $6.82. 

The  willow-bank  farmer  kindly  advised 
Jeremiah  as  to  crops.  Had  he  not  been  farm- 
ing these  acres  for  more  than  a  score  of  years  ? 
Jeremiah  took  his  advice.  Thus  custom  and 
habit  determine  crops. 


THE    FARMER    OF    YESTERDAY       19 

He  sowed  his  seed  and  prayed  for  rain.  The 
rest  was  up  to  the  Weather  Man. 

Jupiter  Pluvius,  the  arch-manufacturer  of 
aridity  and  humidity,  is  the  court  of  last  resort. 
If  the  heavens  are  propitious,  fat  crops;  if 
the  heavens  turn  a  cold,  sour  face  to  the  land, 
lean  crops.  Sunshine  and  rain,  fair  and  foul 
weather,  text-books  to  the  contrary  notwith- 
standing, have  been  the  sole  factor  affecting 
the  yield  of  our  acres  since  the  American  far- 
mer was  in  his  swaddling-clothes.  Weather  is 
the  pressure  gauge;  it  determines  the  revolu- 
tions per  minute,  so  to  speak,  of  this  big  ma- 
chine. If  our  acres  are  not  producing  enough 
food,  put  more  acres  under  cultivation. 

We  are  producing  three  times  as  much  corn 
to-day  as  we  did  fifty  years  ago,  not  because 
we  have  increased  the  efficiency  of  our  plant, 
but  merely  because  we  are  plowing  three  times 
as  many  acres. 

Several  years  ago  two  weather-wise  experts 
(J.  Warren  Smith,  Section  Director  of  the 
Weather  Bureau  at  Washington,  and  Pro- 
fessor W.  D.  Gibbs,  of  the  New  Hampshire 
State  College)  constructed  two  charts  to  show 
the  relation  between  crops  and  weather.  One 
chart  was  to  illustrate  the  rainfall  in  inches; 


20        THE   FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

the  other  to  illustrate  the  yield  per  acre, 
bushels  of  corn,  in  the  corn-growing  states. 
They  fitted  the  two  charts  together.  Even 
the  two  experts  were  not  prepared  for  the 
striking  result  shown.  The  two  charts  fitted 
each  other  like  a  dovetail  joint!  Every  varia- 
tion in  rainfall  was  accompanied  by  a  cor- 
responding variation  in  bushels  of  corn. 

In  as  recent  a  period  of  enlightenment  as 
1901  there  was  a  famine  in  corn.  Solely  for 
the  reason  that  Jupiter  Pluvius  loafed  on  his 
job.  He  had  been  expected  to  produce  eleven 
inches  of  rain  that  summer,  and  he  actually 
furnished  only  a  scant  six  inches.  Don't  blame 
the  farmer.     Blame  the  Weather  Man. 

Take  another  instance :  During  the  decade 
1867-1876,  the  best  yield  of  corn  in  Nebraska 
was  42.2  bushels  to  the  acre — in  1869,  and  the 
poorest  yield  was  10  bushels  to  the  acre — in 
1874.  The  ten-year  average  was  32.5.  Some- 
where between  high  and  low  a  whole  season's 
product  was  lost.  Was  it  the  farmer's  fault 
that  he  received  one  bushel  of  corn  one  year 
for  the  same  amount  of  labor  that  paid  him 
four  bushels  another  year? 

Human  ingenuity  has  constructed  intricate 
machinery  to  crop  ten  acres  with  the  ease  of 


THE    FARMER    OF    YESTERDAY       21 

one.  Machinery  expands  acreage.  It  does 
not  increase  productivity.  The  only  additional 
labor  Jeremiah  expends  to-day  over  what  his 
grandfather  expended  is  in  fighting  weeds, 
insects,  and  fungous  diseases.  These  three 
scourges  of  elementary  agriculture  were  driven 
from  their  happy  hunting-grounds  by  the 
plow,  and  they  have  turned  on  their  despoiler, 
subdivided  their  species  into  highly  specialized 
organizations,  and  are  thriving  on  civilized 
fare. 

So  Jeremiah  is  farming  at  the  same  rate 
to-day  that  he  was  fifty  years  ago — one  hun- 
dred years  ago.  In  fact,  he  is  farming  at  the 
same  rate  as  the  sixteenth-century  yokel  who 
plowed  with  a  crooked  stick  instead  of  a  gas- 
oline tractor.  This  is  amply  proved  by  many 
records.  The  burghers  of  Schmatzfeld,  Ger- 
many, produced  an  average  of  12.5  bushels  of 
wheat  to  the  acre  in  the  period  from  1552  to 
1557.  Minnesota,  a  State  which  grows  more 
wheat  than  the  entire  country  east  of  the  Al- 
leghanies  and  south  of  the  Ohio  River,  has 
averaged  12.4  bushels  for  fifty  years. 

The  Weather  Man  has  been  (lodging  jokes 
patiently  for  more  than  forty  years,  amassing 
enough  evidence  to  take  the  responsibility.    He 


22        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

has  found  that  sunshine  and  rain  vary  not  only 
from  year  to  year,  but  from  decade  to  decade ; 
that  weather  travels  in  great  cycles.  Appar- 
ently we  have  passed  through  one  complete 
cycle. 

A  few  years  after  Civil  War,  the  yield  of 
our  acres  began  to  decline.  The  land  wasn't 
"exhausted."  Most  of  it  was  new  land  that 
had  never  known  the  plow.  And  the  slump 
was  characteristic  of  all  sections,  from  sea- 
board to  seaboard.  Then,  in  the  middle 
'eighties,  the  line  began  to  recover  itself.  (It 
is  worth  while  noting  in  passing  that  it  was 
during  the  decade  of  lowest  yields  that  the 
country  passed  through  its  most  critical 
economic  period,  a  period  of  vast  overproduc- 
tion of  foodstuffs.  That  was  the  period  of 
too  much  land  for  the  given  rate  of  speed,  the 
sunshine-and-rain  rate  of  speed.)  The  line 
ascends  slowly  for  another  ten  years.  In  an- 
other twenty  it  has  recovered  itself,  and  Jere- 
miah is  getting  as  much  out  of  an  acre  in 
bushels  as  his  Civil  War  competitor  did.  It 
is  still  on  the  upward  wave. 

And  so  Jeremiah  plants  his  corn  and  prays 
for  rain.  If  he  follows  the  methods  of  his 
neighbors,  he  will  plant  five  acres  out  of  every 


THE    FARMER    OF    YESTERDAY       23 

fourteen  in  corn;  and  two  in  oats,  and  two  in 
hay  to  feed  the  horses  that  cultivate  the  corn. 
Thus  nine  out  of  fourteen  acres  go  for  corn, 
directly  or  indirectly. 

Jeremiah  has  a  good  year,  an  average  year. 
Sunshine  and  rain  are  kind  to  him.  Bugs  and 
blight  are  kept  at  a  respectful  distance.  His 
corn  is  worth  fourteen  dollars  an  acre. 

The  average,  in  his  neighborhood,  has  been 
$11.54  since  the  time  when  the  first  cultivated 
hog  was  dressed  for  market.  Five  staple 
crops  in  his  neighborhood  average  less  than 
fourteen  dollars.  The  ten  staple  crops  of  the 
United  States  that  account  for  ninety-five  per 
cent,  of  the  three  hundred  and  ten  million 
acres  which  the  farmer  actually  plows  (wheat, 
corn,  oats,  barley,  rye,  buckwheat,  potatoes, 
tobacco,  hay,  and  cotton)  have  varied  from 
$16.42  in  1909  (when  the  cost  of  living  became 
academic)  to  $7.94  in  1896.  The  average 
acreage  return  has  been  $12.04  since  the  dawn 
of  statistics,  forty-five  years  ago.  That  means 
the  cultivated  acre,  not  the  scrub  one. 

So  you  see  Jeremiah  is  rather  successful,  in 
spite  of  his  years  as  a  consumer. 

Jeremiah  opens  his  books  and  strikes  a 
balance — in  red  ink! 


24        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

He  looks  once,  he  looks  twice,  he  dashes 
across  the  pasture  lot  to  Neighbor  Jones,  who 
is  polishing  off  a  new  automobile  in  the  sun- 
shine. Jeremiah  explodes  with  the  direful 
tidings. 

He  is  bankrupt!  Farmer  Jones  is  bank- 
rupt! Everybody  is  bankrupt!  They  ought 
to  be  in  the  hands  of  a  conservator,  or  at 
least  a  receiver.  And  Farmer  Jones — who 
has  been  there  a  long  time — looks  at  Jeremiah, 
once,  twice,  and  then  says  honk!  honk!  with 
his  new  horn. 

But  there  it  is  in  black  and  white.  Look 
back  a  few  paragraphs  and  figure  it  out  for 
yourself,  in  rent,  labor,  and  taxes.  Never 
mind  the  salary  for  the  superintendent  who 
was  to  risk  and  manage  so  much  capital.  Cut 
out  the  five  cents  an  hour  that  was  to  go  to 
Mary.  In  bare  time  it  has  cost  Jeremiah  from 
seven  to  nine  dollars  an  acre  to  sow,  cultivate, 
harvest,  and  haul  his  corn.  Add  the  item  of 
interest.  Then  bring  on  the  tax  bills.  Jere- 
miah sells  his  corn  at  the  market,  the  price 
of  hunger,  the  price  with  which  his  neighbors 
buy  automobiles.  And  for  every  acre  of  food 
he  has  manufactured,  he  stands  an  actual  loss. 

If  he  doesn't  pay  rent — that  is,  interest  on 


THE    FARMER    OF    YESTERDAY       25 

capital — the  sheriff  will  get  him.  If  he  doesn't 
pay  his  labor,  his  men  will  garnishee  him.  If 
he  doesn't  pay  his  taxes,  he  will  be  advertised. 
The  only  privilege  land  has  given  him  is 
to  expend  his  labor.  The  only  privilege 
labor  has  given  him  is  to  draw  on  his  bank 
account. 

"And  you  are  in  the  same  boat  that  I  am!" 
cried  Jeremiah  to  Farmer  Jones. 

"Wait  a  minute,"  saj^s  Neighbor  Jones. 
"Why  should  I  pay  interest — or  rent,  as  you 
call  it — on  my  land?  It  didn't  cost  me  one 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars  an  acre.  I  in- 
herited it  from  my  father.  The  Government 
caught  him  when  he  wasn't  looking  and  made 
him  a  present  of  it.  And  what  have  wages 
got  to  do  with  me?"  asks  Farmer  Jones.  "I 
have  two  sons  and  a  daughter  and  wife.  I 
pay  them  their  salt.  And  we  have  just  bought 
a  new  six-cylinder  sixty." 

"Isn't  your  time  worth  anything?"  asked 
Jeremiah. 

"It's  my  own  time,  isn't  it?"  demanded 
Farmer  Jones.  "I  can  do  what  I  please  with 
it." 

"If  you  sold  your  land  and  invested  the 
cash  in  a  factory  to  make  biscuits  or  buttons 


26        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

or  gunpowder,  instead  of  keeping  it  invested 
in  land  to  grow  corn,  would  you  expect  it 
to  return  you  anything?  Or  would  you  con- 
sider that  it  merely  provided  you  with  a  job 
that  you  could  pass  around  among  all  the 
members  of  your  family?" 

"I  would  expect  it  to  return  me  something, 
of  course,"  admitted  Farmer  Jones. 

"Say  you  invested  it  in  industrial  stock," 
suggested  Jeremiah.  "You  would  not  have 
to  turn  a  hand  for  that  six  per  cent.,  would 
you?  You  and  your  family  could  ride  around 
in  your  six-cylinder  sixty  all  day,  and  you 
wouldn't  have  to  bother  about  getting  up  at 
four  o'clock  in  the  morning  to  feed  the  horses 
and  start  for  the  field.  Your  capital  would 
work  for  you.  And,  Mr.  Jones,"  went  on  the 
bankrupt,  "if  you  had  inherited  a  soap  fac- 
tory instead  of  a  farm  from  your  father,  that 
soap  factory  would  have  to  earn  interest  on 
its  capital,  and  pay  fixed  charges,  to  stay  in 
business,  wouldn't  it?  Or  would  you  run  it 
as  a  charitable  institution  and  forget  to  figure 
on  cost  of  production?  How  long  do  you 
think  your  laborers  would  work  for  you  if  you 
paid  them  salt  and  garden  truck  and  a  fresh 
chicken  on  Sunday?    And  how  did  you  hap- 


THE    FARMER    OF    YESTERDAY       27 

pen  to  sell  your  corn  at  forty  cents  a  bushel, 
Mr.  Jones?" 

"That's  the  market  price,"  explained  Mr. 
Jones.    "That's  what  they  are  paying." 

"Exactly!  That's  what  they  offered  you. 
If  you  were  making  soap  instead  of  corn, 
do  you  think  you  would  sell  your  soap  for 
what  they  offered  you?  Or  do  you  think  you 
would  sell  it  for  what  it  cost  to  manufacture, 
plus  a  fair  interest  on  the  capital  involved?" 

But  Farmer  Jones  isn't  bothering  about 
abstruse  problems.  He  isn't  bothering  about 
the  cost  of  production.  He  is  interested  only 
in  the  credit  side  of  the  ledger.  The  debits 
don't  affect  him.  If  it  really  is  true  that  he 
has  to  pay  rent  and  wages,  then  his  liabilities 
are  in  the  hands  of  preferred  creditors,  himself 
and  his  wife,  and  their  sons  and  daughters. 
What  is  a  small  matter  of  insolvency,  if  one 
can  keep  it  in  the  family  circle?  If  Farmer 
Jones  is  broke  because  he  owes  himself  money, 
you  will  have  to  show  him. 

"But  how  about  me!"  cried  Jeremiah.  "I 
think  I  see  the  sheriff  coming  down  the  road 
now." 

It  wasn't  the  sheriff.  It  was  only  the 
willow-bank  farmer  coming  back  from  Canada 


28        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

and  anxious  to  do  business  at  the  old  stand. 
He  was  willing  to  wipe  the  slate  clean,  in 
consideration  of  the  fact  that  there  is  no  place 
like  home,  after  all.  When  he  heard  Jere- 
miah's story,  the  willow-bank  farmer  had  the 
same  notions  as  Farmer  Jones ;  but  he  assumed 
a  little  more  sympathy  for  Jeremiah. 

"Why  don't  you  go  on  farther  west,  where 
you  can  get  land  for  fifty  or  one  hundred  dol- 
lars an  acre?"  he  asked. 

"What  good  would  that  do  me?"  asked 
Jeremiah.  "What  I  would  save  in  interest 
on  capital,  I  would  lose  in  freight  getting  my 
corn  to  market.  It  would  be  all  the  same  in 
the  long  run." 

And  he  was  right.  Corn  in  Kansas  is 
worth  about  three  dollars  an  acre  less  than 
corn  in  Iowa. 

Something  is  wrong. 

You  will  probably  say  at  this  point  that  the 
remedy  is  obvious.  Let  Jeremiah  put  on  more 
steam.  He  is  running  his  plant  at  one-third 
pressure,  you  say.  The  American  farmer  is 
growing  only  twenty-seven  bushels  of  corn  to 
the  acre.  Why,  in  1910,  a  school-boy,  Jerry 
Moore,  harvested  two  hundred  and  twenty- 
seven  and  two-thirds  bushels  of  corn  on  a 


THE    FARMER    OF    YESTERDAY       29 

measured  acre!  That  shows  what  could  be 
done  if  the  American  farmer  would  increase 
his  speed. 

Let  us  apply  this  remedy  to  Jeremiah  as 
an  individual.  In  the  first  place,  it  cost  little 
Jerry  Moore  something  like  one  hundred  and 
forty  dollars  in  capital  and  labor  to  win  his 
medal  in  the  Boys'  Corn  Growing  Contest. 
That  contest  was  a  brilliant  example  of  how 
to  farm  with  capital.  Jeremiah  doesn't  want 
to  be  told  how  to  farm  with  capital.  He  wants 
to  know  how  to  farm  tcithout  capital.  He 
hasn't  one  hundred  and  forty  dollars,  nor  half 
of  it,  nor  yet  a  quarter  of  it,  to  expend  on  a 
single  acre.  The  world  isn't  hungry  enough 
yet  to  finance  him.  Little  Belgium  is,  with 
its  six  hundred  and  fifty  souls  to  the  square 
mile;  but  the  United  States,  with  only  thirty- 
one  souls  to  the  square  mile,  is  still  remote  from 
the  necessity. 

Now  apply  the  remedy  to  Jeremiah  as  a 
mass,  to  the  great  American  farmer.  How 
would  it  work  out?  Take  Iowa  as  an  example. 
She  is  a  good  example  because  she  grows  thirty 
times  as  much  corn  as  the  entire  western  half 
of  the  country. 

In  her  bumper  year  (1910)  she  grew  three 


30        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

hundred  and  forty  million  bushels.  The  price 
fell  to  thirty-eight  cents. 

The  next  year  she  grew  two  hundred  and 
seventy  million.  The  price  rose  to  fifty-five 
cents. 

If  she  grew  five  hundred  millions — as  she 
could — the  price  would  go  to  twenty  cents, 
on  the  same  basis  of  calculating. 

Fifty-five-cent  corn  paid  the  farmers  $148,- 
000,000. 

Thirty-eight-cent  corn  paid  them  $129,- 
000,000. 

Twenty-cent  corn  would  pay  them  $100,- 
000,000! 

And,  the  freight  on  twenty-cent  corn  is 
the  same  as  the  freight  on  dollar  corn.  No, 
the  so-called  intelligent  culture  is  no  more  use 
to  Jeremiah  than  his  boot-straps  would  be  to 
pull  him  out  of  the  mire.  Until  the  world 
is  hungry  enough  to  finance  Jeremiah;  or 
until  the  middle-men  give  him  more  than 
thirty-five  cents  of  the  consumer's  dollar,  text- 
book farming  will  remain  a  dogma  and  nothing 
more. 

A  thousand,  or  a  hundred  thousand,  farmers 
may  dabble  in  it,  providing  they  have  enough 
capital — because    this    efficiency    engineering 


THE    FARMER    OF    YESTERDAY        31 

costs  money;  but  they  must  be  very  careful 
or  they  will  upset  the  balance.  The  margin 
is  slight.  A  few  years  ago  potato  growers  in 
Maine  became  so  efficient,  so  intelligent,  that 
they  were  forced  to  sell  out  at  eleven  cents  a 
bushel. 

"If  the  farmers  of  the  United  States  were 
to  produce  as  much,  acre  for  acre,  to-day, 
as  the  farmers  of  Belgium,"  said  Professor 
Milton  Whitney,  of  the  Bureau  of  Soils,  re- 
cently, "the  world  would  face  the  greatest 
panic  in  its  history." 

Then  what  is  wrong  with  Jeremiah? 

Is  the  price  of  land  too  high? 

Is  the  price  of  food  too  low? 

The  trouble  with  Jeremiah  is  that  he  is  ahead 
of  his  times.  He  came  too  late  for  the  old 
order  of  things.  He  is  too  early  for  the  new 
order. 

Jeremiah  tried  to  compete  free-handed,  on 
improved  acres,  with  a  subsidized  industry — 
with  an  industry  that  has  grown  up  to  a  capi- 
talization of  fifty  billion  dollars,  and  hasn't 
found  its  feet  yet. 

Seventy  per  cent,  of  his  six  and  a  half  mil- 
lion competitors  can  afford  to  ignore  land  as 
representing  capital.    They  got  it  for  nothing 


32        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

or  for  a  song.  Till  to-day — or  let  us  say  yes- 
terday— a  charitable  old  gentleman  in  chin 
whiskers  and  a  red-white-and-blue  waistcoat 
has  been  lying  awake  nights  devising  new 
schemes  for  giving  away  quarter-sections. 
Now  farm  land  is  all  gone,  except  for  the  small 
matter  of,  say,  two  hundred  and  sixty  million 
acres  of  scenery  that  nobody  would  take  as  a 
gift.  It  was  all  gone  ten  years  ago,  except 
for  a  core,  a  scant  four  per  cent.  The  late- 
comers lined  up  and  drew  lots  for  this  four 
per  cent.  Our  farm  land  has  been  employed 
till  to-day — or  yesterday — not  as  capital,  but 
as  a  means  of  labor.  And  as  labor  it  has 
paid  big  wages.  It  didn't  have  to  pay  interest 
on  capital  until  there  was  no  more  of  it  to 
be  had  for  the  asking. 

Meantime,  "unearned  increment"  has  sud- 
dently  appeared  on  the  horizon.  Railroads, 
cities,  the  increasing  hunger  of  the  world,  and 
the  demands  of  those  who  drew  blanks  in  the 
lottery,  have  increased  the  appraised  price  of 
land  as  capital  118  per  cent,  in  the  first  ten 
years  of  the  new  century. 

With  capital  comes  interest,  rent.  Jere- 
miah is  the  pioneer  of  the  business  of  farm- 
ing, the  establishment  of  agriculture  on  its 


THE    FARMER    OF    YESTERDAY       33 

permanent  basis.  He  can't  compete  with  the 
old  order  yet. 

Then  the  price  of  land  is  too  high! 

Possibly.  But  if  you  speak  softly,  no  one 
will  suspect  it — except  the  Jeremiahs — be- 
cause seventy  per  cent,  of  the  farms  are  still 
being  worked  as  a  means  of  labor,  according 
to  the  moon.  You  can't  persuade  this  seventy 
per  cent,  that  cost  of  production  means  any- 
thing to  them,  when  they  happen  to  be  both 
delinquent  debtor  and  amiable  creditor  rolled 
into  one. 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  LINE  OF  LEAST  RESISTANCE 

The  actual  task  of  gathering  up  our  be- 
longings and  starting  "back  to  the  land"  is  so 
much  more  of  an  undertaking  than  the  mere 
talking  about  it,  that  the  so-called  movement 
has  never  gone  much  beyond  breakfast-table 
conversation.  We  began  talking  about  it  a 
decade  or  two  ago  when  we  were  still  pastoral 
enough  as  a  nation  to  count  two-thirds  of  the 
population  as  rural.  To-day  nearly  one-half 
of  our  ninety-two  millions  elect  to  live  in  cities, 
places  remote  from  the  food  surplus — actually 
forty-six  per  cent,  in  the  last  census.  So  the 
pendulum  has  swung  in  the  other  direction  and 
is  still  swinging. 

Occasionally,  however,  an  individual  does 
break  away,  with  a  vague  idea  of  following  in 
the  foot-steps  of  his  grandfather — or  maybe  his 
father — who  went  "west"  with  a  yoke  of  oxen 
and  an  iron  kettle.    Such  a  one,  for  instance, 

34 


LINE    OF    LEAST    RESISTANCE        35 

we  find  seeking  advice  in  the  questions-and- 
answers  column  of  a  middle- west  farm  weekly. 
He  has  a  capital  of  five  thousand  dollars  and 
he  would  like  to  know  what  section  of  the 
country  offers  him  the  best  advantages  for 
farming.  This  editor — ^this  is  an  actual  in- 
stance— replied : 

"If  you  have  no  more  than  five  thousand 
dollars  I  would  not  advise  you  to  attempt 
farming." 

Note,  the  editor  did  not  ask  the  correspond- 
ent to  state  what  his  training  and  experience 
had  been — if,  in  other  words,  he  possessed  the 
qualifications  to  fit  him  for  the  business  he 
purposed  to  enter.  Instead,  he  dismissed  the 
inquirer — who  probably  represents  a  million 
of  his  kind — as  he  would  dismiss  a  mechanic 
too  poor  to  buy  tools. 

There  is  a  tremendous  gap  (not  so  much 
one  of  years  as  of  rapidly  changing  conditions ) 
between  the  viewpoint  of  this  practical  and 
experienced  observer  of  latter-day  conditions 
and  that  of  Horace  Greeley  less  than  two 
generations  ago. 

It  is  the  difference  between  land  which  has, 
in  an  incredibly  short  time,  become  capital, 
demanding  its  tithe — and  land  as  we  knew  it 


36        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

in  the  days  of  our  youth,  too  much  land, 
nothing  but  land,  land  as  means  of  labor.  The 
fact  that  the  average  farm  in  the  State  of  Iowa 
was  appraised  at  over  fifteen  thousand  dollars 
in  value  by  the  census  enumerators  of  1910 
is  sufficient  to  open  our  eyes  to  the  develop- 
ments of  the  last  decade. 

We  are  already  beginning  to  appreciate  the 
fact — though  the  time  is  not  yet  sufficiently 
remote  to  give  us  the  proper  perspective — 
that  the  opening  of  the  present  century  marks 
a  very  definite  milestone  in  the  progress  of 
the  nation.  The  period  is  so  definite  in  fact 
that  its  characteristics  can  be  reduced  to  a 
simple  chart.  On  the  one  side,  the  closing  de- 
cades of  the  nineteenth  century  is  a  slowly 
descending  line,  picturing  the  declining  for- 
tunes of  the  United  States  as  an  agricultural 
nation,  due  to  over-development  of  land  re- 
sources. On  the  other  side  is  a  steadily  as- 
cending line,  marking  the  sudden  rise  of 
manufactures  and  commerce,  a  new  align- 
ment of  producers  and  consumers  of  food, 
eventually  bringing  about  a  new  era  of  pros- 
perity in  the  despised  industry  of  farming. 
Trace  the  history  of  great  individual  fortunes 
founded  on  commerce  and  manufactures  and 


LINE    OF    LEAST    RESISTANCE        37 

we  find  that  practically  all  of  them  came  into 
existence  with  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth 
century.  At  the  same  time  the  class  of  im- 
migrants from  Europe  began  to  change. 
They  were  no  longer  tillers  of  the  soil.  They 
were  cheap  labor,  drafted  by  expanding  man- 
ufacturing industries.  During  the  decade 
closing  the  last  century  we  welcomed  three 
million  souls,  mostly  immigrants  from  the 
south  of  Europe.  During  the  first  decade  of 
the  present  century  we  tripled  the  number. 

This  abrupt  change  in  the  character  of  the 
national  life  must  have  reacted  on  the  basic 
industry — ^that  of  supplying  food  for  hungry 
mouths.  That  is  the  phase  of  the  situation 
with  which  we  have  to  do  here.  It  is  respon- 
sible for  the  new  problems  that  face  our  Jere- 
miahs, who  are  beginning  to  turn  their  faces 
toward  the  land. 

Farming  in  any  country  must  first  pass 
through  its  pastoral  stage,  the  stage  when 
each  unit  is  sufficient  unto  itself.  But  sooner 
or  later  it  develops  into  an  industry  having  a 
surplus  to  exchange,  an  industry  which  must 
be  conducted  according  to  business  principles. 
Each  farm  eventually  becomes  a  producing 
plant,  subject  to  the  same  requirements  as  the 


38        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

business  of  making  buttons  or  biscuits.  If  the 
correspondent  who  toiled  and  saved  for  years 
to  fit  himself  to  go  back  to  the  land  had  been 
a  close  observer  of  present-day  conditions,  he 
would  have  found  an  explanation  of  the 
editor's  contempt  for  his  five  thousand  dollars 
capital  in  a  single  fact  gleaned  from  the  last 
census.  In  the  decade  ending  in  April,  1910, 
the  population  of  the  United  States — ^mouths 
to  be  fed — increased  twenty-one  per  cent;  in 
the  same  period,  land — the  source  of  food — 
increased  in  acreage  only  4.8  per  cent.  That 
means  that  every  acre  nominally  in  farms  was 
called  on  to  feed  more  mouths  than  before. 

Yet  the  aver.age  acre  did  not  materially  in- 
crease in  productiveness  in  those  ten  years.  In 
spite  of  the  propaganda  of  intensive  farming, 
which  is  to  make  two  blades  of  grass  grow 
where  one  grew  before,  the  productiveness  of 
our  manufacturing  plant  for  food  has  not 
varied  in  efficiency  since  the  beginning.  It  has 
followed  absolutely  the  pressure  gage  imposed 
by  fluctuating  weather  conditions.  To  meet 
the  additional  demands  of  hunger,  the  industry 
of  farming  has  heretofore  increased  its  floor 
space,  the  number  of  acres  under  the  plow. 
This  is  what  it  attempted  to  do  at  the  begin- 


LINE    OF   LEAST   RESISTANCE 


39 


ning  of  the  present  century.  But  instead  of 
increasing  its  floor  space  twenty-one  per  cent., 
it  increased  it  less  than  one-fourth  of  that 
amount.  There  seemed  only  one  way  to  make 
up  for  the  deficiency.     That  was  to  turn  to 


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Ftom  United  Slates  Crop  Reporter,  February,  1913.' 

The  weighted  acreage  yield  of  corn  for  the  country  as  a 
whole.  Note  the  dip  marking  the  middle  period,  due  to 
weather  cycles.  All  crops  in  all  sections  of  the  country  ex- 
hibit the  same  general  tendency,  i.  e.,  low  yields  during  the 
'eighties  and  'nineties.  The  fact  that  this  period  of  lowest 
production  was  also  a  period  of  lowest  prices  illustrates  the 
extent  of  the  over-development  of  our  food  resources  at  that 
time. 

the  exports  of  food-stuffs  which  have  been  re- 
sponsible for  the  traditional  balance  of  trade 
in  our  favor.  We  had  to  retain  at  home  the 
food  we  had  formerly  shipped  abroad.  In  the 
last  half  of  the  last  decade  the  exports  of  food- 
stuffs began  a  rapid  decline. 

Two  things  were  bound  to  happen.    First, 


40        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

the  price  of  food  was  bound  to  go  up.  Second, 
the  price  of  land  as  capital — land  as  the  plant 
in  which  is  manufactured  a  limited  supply  of 
food — must  follow  suit.  That  is  why  the  cor- 
respondent whose  father  went  west  with  a 
yoke  of  oxen  and  an  iron  kettle  found  the 
editor  rather  impatient  at  his  mention  of  five 
thousand  dollars  to  outfit  a  modern  farmer 
with  land,  stock  and  machinery. 

There  is  not  much  margin  between  famine 
and  plenty.  The  world's  hunger  follows  close 
on  the  heels  of  harvest.  A  reader  of  statis- 
tical bent  can  trace  the  history  of  the  American 
farmer,  explain  all  his  ups  and  downs,  by 
examining  the  per  capita  production  of  bread 
and  meat  since  the  Civil  War.  A  chart  com- 
prised of  these  elements  would  show  that  the 
farmer  was  prosperous  during  the  decade  fol- 
lowing the  Civil  War,  in  spite  of  depreciated 
currency  and  reconstruction.  There  were  too 
many  mouths  to  feed  and  not  enough  acres 
under  cultivation  to  feed  them.  Then  came 
the  Homestead  Act,  with  its  tide  of  settlers 
rolling  west,  finally  to  be  turned  back  by  the 
wall  of  mountains.  By  1879  we  find  the  "floor 
space"  devoted  to  producing  food  catching  up 
with  the  normal  demands  of  an  increasing 


LINE    OF    LEAST    RESISTANCE        41 

population;  and  from  1879  onward  until  1896 
(the  year  of  the  lowest  food  prices  in  the  entire 
cycle)   the  farmers  of  the  west  carried  over- 


»^  OO   o   OJ   •;*•  to   CO 

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U.  S.  Crop  Reporter,  Dec.  1911. 

Chart  showing  relative  production  per  acre  and  per  capita 
in  the  United  States  of  10  crops  (wheat,  corn,  oats,  barley, 
buckwheat,  rye,  potatoes,  hay,  tobacco,  and  cotton)  combined. 
100  represents  the  average  for  the  43  years,  1833-1908. 

production  to  a  point  where  even  the  world 
market  could  not  absorb  the  surplus.  It  was 
during  this  period  that  old  Jeremiah,  the  pio- 
neer, came  hack  from  the  land  because  there 
was  no  one  so  poor  as  the  farmer.  It  was  dur- 
ing the  later  part  of  this  same  period  that  our 
present-day  trans-continental  trunk-lines  were 
reconstructed  out  of  the  receiverships  follow- 
ing two  decades  of  depression.  In  the  latter 
part  of  the  'nineties  hunger  again  caught  up. 


42        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

with  the  plow,  passed  it  with  the  opening  of 
the  new  century,  and  since  then  has  maintained 
the  lead. 

A  business  which  produces  too  little  or  too 
much  draws  its  returns  accordingly.  Every 
item  in  lack  of  balance,  on  one  side  or  the  other 
of  the  scale,  is  reflected  in  dollars  and  cents. 
The  dollars  and  cents  return  to  the  American 
farmer  for  the  last  fifty  years  is  in  fact  a 
huge  curve,  touching  low  ebb  at  the  middle 
period.  Thus  the  farmer  who  stayed  in  busi- 
ness in  the  unsettled  times  following  the  Civil 
War  received  $15.74  for  every  acre  of  floor 
space  he  devoted  to  the  production  of  food  in 
1871.  But  his  returns  began  to  fall  away  with 
the  rush  of  homesteaders — competitors.  A 
line  indicating  value  per  acre  of  farm  products 
tells  the  story  of  the  decline  in  fortune  of  the 
farmer  of  those  days.  It  is  a  ragged  line, 
because  in  some  years  the  heavens  smiled 
bountifully  on  the  land,  doubling  its  super- 
abundance; while  other  years  swung  the  bal- 
ance in  the  opposite  direction,  either  because 
of  drought  or  too  much  rain.  Nevertheless 
the  returns  the  farmer  gleaned  from  his  acres 
fell  steadily. 

In  1886  he  had  to  be  content  with  a  return 


LINE    OF    LEAST    RESISTANCE 


43 


of  only  $9.41  for  the  labor  he  expended  on 
one  acre.    It  cost  him  just  as  much  care  and 


16 
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D     oo     OO    OO     ^->    cr>    OO    OO    o7    <J^ 

F.  8.  Crop  Reporter,  Dec.  1911. 

Chart  showing  value  of  the  production  of  1  acre  (wheat, 
corn,  oats,  barley,  rye,  buckwheat,  potatoes,  tobacco,  hay  and 
cotton)  combined,  for  95  per  cent,  of  area  of  full  crops. 

Yearly  value  per  acre  of  10  crops  combined. 


1910 $15.49 

1909 16.42 

1908 15.32 

1907 14.74 

1906 13.46 

1905 13 .  28 

1904 13.26 

1903 12.62 

1002 12.07 

1901 11.43 

1900 10.31 

1899 9.13 

1898 9.00 

1897 9.07 

1896 7.94 

1895 8.12 

1894 9.06 

1893 9.50 

1892 10.10 

1891 11.76 

1890 11.03 

1889 8.99 

1888 10.30 


1887 $10.14 

1886 9.41 

1885 9.72 

1884 9.95 

1883 10.93 

1882 12.93 

1881 13.10 

1880 13.01 

1879 13.26 

1878 10.37 

1877 12.01 

1876 10.80 

1876 12.20 

1874 13.25 

1873 14.19 

1872 14.86 

1871 15.74 

1870 15.40 

1869 14.67 

1868 14.17 

1867 15.09 

1866 14.17 


trouble  to  produce  food  in  1886  as  in  1871, 
and  he  produced  the  same  amount  per  acre, 


44        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

but  in  the  latter  year  he  was  paid  only  a  little 
more  than  fifty  cents  on  the  dollar  for  his 
pains.  During  the  next  ten  years  the  nearest 
he  came  to  a  decent  living  was  in  1891,  when 
an  acre  of  food  was  worth  $11.78,  thanks  to 
drought.  Five  years  later  his  fortunes  had 
sagged  until  they  touched  the  low  water  mark, 
with  returns  of  only  $7.94.  That  sum  scarcely 
repaid  the  farmer  for  the  labor  of  sowing  and 
reaping;  and  if  he  considered  such  a  thing  as 
land  being  capital  in  those  days,  and  the  rent 
which  capital  exacts  even  before  labor  is  paid, 
he  would  have  had  nothing  for  his  labor. 

But  we  began  to  grow  hungrier  again  about 
the  time  of  the  Spanish- American  War.  The 
tariff,  with  its  artificial  stimulus  to  production 
in  the  arts,  was  beginning  to  work  smoothly; 
manufactures  (in  which  capital  confiscated 
the  subsidy  that  had  been  laid  in  the  name  of 
labor)  began  to  flourish;  the  Jeremiahs  re- 
treated from  the  farms  and  those  who  stayed 
had  to  fight  bugs,  blight  and  fungus  diseases, 
the  growing  pains  of  new  land;  the  tide  of 
immigration  from  southern  Europe — people 
who  did  not  know  how  to  farm  and  did  not 
want  to  learn — turned  toward  flood.  Food 
and  hunger  began  to  run  parallel  again,  and 


LINE    OF    LEAST    RESISTANCE        45 

in  another  two  or  three  years  hunger  got  ahead 
of  the  food  supply  and  stayed  there. 

Then  the  farmer  who  had  stayed  on  the 
farm,  who  had  refused  to  heed  the  call  of  the 
cities,  began  to  come  into  his  own  again.  His 
acre  which  had  paid  him  only  $7.94  for  a  given 
amount  of  labor  in  1896  suddenly  began  to 
pay  better  dividends.  It  touched  the  pros- 
perous figure  of  $16.42  in  1909 — higher  even 
than  inflated  Civil  War  figures — and  con- 
tinued on  up  the  scale,  though  a  too-bountiful 
crop  in  1910  caused  it  to  pause  for  a  few  brief 
months. 

What  about  the  price  of  land,  the  value  of 
land,  during  this  fifty  years  of  the  ups  and 
downs  of  the  American  farmer  ?  Land  is  valu- 
able in  proportion  to  the  demand  for  its  prod- 
ucts. If  this  is  true,  then  the  acre  that  paid 
its  husbandman  $15.74  in  1871  and  the  acre 
that  returned  $15.49  in  1910  should  have  pos- 
sessed the  same  selling  value. 

Yet  what  is  the  fact  when  we  come  to  look 
at  the  figures  ?  The  fact  is  that  the  acre  which 
exacted  a  definite  amount  of  labor  and  paid 
a  definite  return  could  be  had  for  fifteen  dol- 
lars in  1871,  while  it  sold  at  $32.40  in  1910. 


46        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

And,  furthermore,  this  same  acre  which 
yielded  only  fifty  cents  on  the  dollar  in  1896 
was  still  considered  worth  about  fifteen  dollars 
by  its  owner  in  that  depressing  year. 

These  figures  are  not  as  paradoxical  as  they 
seem.  The  United  States  had,  in  the  begin- 
ning, nearly  one  billion  acres  of  fertile  arable 
land  to  give  away.  Land  that  is  to  be  had 
for  the  asking  is  not  worth  anything  in  dol- 
lars and  cents  for  itself.  The  only  value  home- 
stead land  possessed  in  the  earty  days  of  farm- 
ing was  due  to  the  amount  of  labor  expended 
on  it  to  subdue  it  for  the  plow.  The  home- 
steaders believed  that  about  $15  worth  of 
labor  must  be  expended  on  the  average  acre, 
and  so  long  as  there  was  free  land  to  be  had 
for  the  asking  the  owner  could  not  exact  a 
higher  price.  Land  was  not  capital,  although 
it  frequently  returned  to  labor  over  one  hun- 
dred per  cent,  gross  on  its  market  valuation. 
From  the  Civil  War  on  until  1900  the  census 
returns  report  the  value  of  farm  land  as  hover- 
ing about  fifteen  dollars  an  acre.  But  with 
the  beginning  of  the  new  century  there  comes 
a  change.    There  is  no  more  land  to  give  away. 

The  price  of  food  is  too  high.  We  have 
solved  this  problem  more  than  once  before  in 


LINE    OF   LEAST    RESISTANCE        47 

our  history — or  rather  we  have  let  it  solve 
itself.  If  two  acres  did  not  produce  enough 
food  it  was  easy  to  plow  three  acres.    It  was 

POPULATION  AND  NUMBER  OF  FARMS  AND  LAND  IN  FARMS 


Population 

No.  of  farms 

All  land  in  farms 

Year 

Number 

Per 

Cent, 
increase 

Number 

Per 

Cent, 
increase 

Acres 

Per 

Cent, 
increase 

1910 

1900 

1890 

1880 

1870 

1860 

1860 

91,972,266 
75,994,575 
62,947,714 
50,155,783 
38,558,371 
31,443,321 
23,191,876 

21.0 
20.7 
25.5 
30.1 
22.6 
35.6 

6,361,502 
5,737,372 
4,564,641 
4,008,907 
2,659,985 
2,044,077 
1,449,073 

10.9 
25.7 
13.9 
50.7 
30.1 
41.1 

878,798,325 
838,591,774 
623,218,619 
536,081,835 
407,735,041 
407,212,238 
293.560,614 

4.8 
34.6 
16.3 
31.5 

0.1 
38.7 

VALUE  OF  FARM  PROPERTY 


Year 

Value 

Per  Cent, 
increase 

Per 
farm 

Per  acre 
of  land 

and 
buildings 

1910 

$40,991,449,090 
20,439,901,164 
16,082,267,689 
12,180,501,538 
8,944,857,749 
7,980,493,063 
3,967,343,580 

100.5 
27.1 
32.0 
36.2 
12.1 

101.2 

$6,444 
3,663 
3,523 
3,038 
3,363 
3,904 
2,738 

$32,40  1 
15. 57^ 
21.31 

1900 

1800 

1880 

19.02 

1870 

18.26 

1860 

16.32 

1850 

11.14 

a.    Value  of  land  without  buildings. 


merely  a  question  of  inducing  a  homesteader 
to  expend  about  $15  worth  of  his  own  time 
on  a  piece  of  prairie  sod  and  plant  corn.  The 
soaring  price  of  food  in  the  last  ten  years  has 
tempted  more  and  more  men — and  women — 


48        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

to  embark  in  the  business  of  growing  food. 
Hordes  have  crowded  the  Land  Office,  men 
and  women  who  would  be  given  the  oppor- 
tunity to  plow  the  third  acre. 

But  the  third  acre  was  hard  to  find.  In 
1900  the  floor  space  devoted  to  agi'iculture 
was  838,000,000  acres,  an  increase  of  34.6  per 
cent,  over  1890.  But  in  the  next  ten  years, 
when  the  greatest  pressure  in  our  history  was 
being  brought  to  bear  on  our  farms  to  supply 
food,  the  best  we  could  do  was  to  add  4.8  per 
cent,  acreage  to  the  floor  space  of  a  manufac- 
turing plant  whose  efficiency  was  still  being 
measured  by  the  sunshine-and-rain  rate  of 
production.  And,  at  that,  it  was  accomplished 
only  by  sorting  over  the  remnants,  from  which 
we  were  able  to  glean  only  40,000,000  acres, 
bringing  the  grand  total  up  to  878,000,000 
acres.  Toward  the  end  of  the  last  decade  land 
suitable  for  farms  had  become  so  scarce  that 
home-seekers  stood  in  line  and  drew  lots.  Of 
every  hundred  who  filed  claims  one  would 
draw  a  prize  from  the  lottery,  and  in  the  ma- 
jority of  instances  the  so-called  prize  was  of 
such  a  forbidding  character  that  old  Jeremiah 
of  a  generation  ago  would  have  passed  it  by 
in  fine  scorn.     Right  here  is  where  intensive 


LINE    OF    LEAST    RESISTANCE        49 

farming  and  the  reclamation  of  waste  land 
enter  as  factors  in  the  process  of  develop- 
ment of  our  national  industry  of  agriculture. 

But  that  is  another  story. 

*  *  *  *  * 

It  is  interesting  to  trace  the  last  step  of  the 
American  farmer  in  his  expansion  over  cheap 
land.  During  the  last  decade,  the  East  and 
the  South  Atlantic  States  actually  retreated, 
abandoned  farm  areas,  giving  up  more  than 
one  million  acres  for  one  cause  or  another — 
principally  because  vast  areas  in  these  states, 
reclaimed  by  early  settlers,  were  permitted  to 
revert  to  forest  from  which  they  never  should 
have  been  cleared. 

The  Middle  West,  the  land  of  milk  and 
honey,  lying,  roughly  speaking,  between  the 
valleys  of  the  Ohio  and  Missouri  Rivers,  and 
south  of  the  forty-fifth  parallel  of  latitude, 
practically  stood  still.  In  other  words,  the 
cream  of  the  land,  that  yielding  the  largest 
returns  with  the  smallest  amount  of  labor,  had 
disappeared  entirely  even  before  the  beginning 
of  the  new  century.  We  can  except  from  this 
territory  only  a  portion  of  the  new  State  of 
Oklahoma,  which  was  given  over  to  white  set- 
tlers during  the  closing  years  of  the  old  cen- 


50        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

tury  after  the  Indians  had  been  pushed  still 
farther  into  the  arid  West. 

Oklahoma,  which  crowds  the  dry-land  belt 
lying  between  the  prairies  of  the  Middle  West 
and  the  mountains,  furnished  six  million  acres 
for  the  late-comers,  and  with  the  final  entry 
of  this  strip  as  homesteads,  the  last  of  the 
"inexhaustible  West,"  the  last  of  land  sus- 
ceptible to  the  type  of  agriculture  that  the 
pioneers  knew,  disappeared  from  the  continent. 

Those  who  followed  found  only  the  semi- 
arid  Great  Plains  and  the  inter-mountain  re- 
gions and  the  arid  Southwest  to  be  had  for 
the  asking.  Twenty  years  ago  it  was  the 
verdict  of  qualified  students  that  eventually 
less  than  twenty  per  cent,  of  the  bench  lands 
lying  between  the  ninety-ninth  meridian  and 
the  mountain  wall  would  ever  be  available  for 
agriculture.  It  was  not  a  question  of  innate 
fertility  of  the  land,  but  lack  of  water.  The 
ninety-ninth  meridian  marks,  roughly  speak- 
ing, the  twenty-inch  rainfall.  The  prosperity 
of  the  Middle  West  depends  on  an  annual 
rainfall  of  not  less  than  thirty-five  inches,  and 
once  we  cross  the  line  we  must  change  our 
type  of  agriculture.  The  early  movement  to- 
ward the  taking  up  of  these  semi-arid  lands 


LINE    OF   LEAST    RESISTANCE        51 

was  to  the  southwest.  The  hardship  and 
disaster  that  have  followed  in  the  wake  of  this 
movement  have  since  served  to  develop  one 
simple  truth,  i.  e.,  that,  if  these  lands  are  to 
be  made  available  for  farming  at  all,  the 
farmer  must  take  into  account  the  ratio  be- 
tween rainfall  and  evaporation.  Toward  the 
south,  twenty  inches  of  rain  means  less  than 
toward  the  north.  Arid  bench  lands  in  the 
intermountain  valleys  of  the  State  of  Wash- 
ington, for  instance,  can  produce  wheat  with 
ten  inches  of  rain  because  the  task  of  retain- 
ing the  scant  moisture  in  the  soil  to  feed  the 
crops  is  more  easily  accomplished  than  in  the 
South.  Texas  fails  to  grow  wheat  with  twenty 
inches  of  rain  because  of  the  greedy  sun. 
During  the  last  decade  in  western  Texas — a 
state  larger  and  more  fertile  than  the  German 
Empire — settlers  abandoned  thirteen  million 
acres  of  range,  upon  whose  waterless  plains 
their  folorn  hopes  had  led  them  a  decade  be- 
fore. Consider  what  this  means.  An  area 
equal  to  New  England,  excepting  Maine  and 
New  Hampshire,  reverted  to  the  range. 

Yet,  in  the  fact  of  the  cruel  experiences  of 
these  "nesters"  in  the  Southwest,  the  last  le- 
gion of  the  army  started  in  motion  by  the 


52        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

Homestead  Act  dared  the  new  problems  of 
the  Great  Plains  further  north.  Western 
Kansas,  Nebraska  and  the  Dakotas  enrolled 
forty-five  million  acres  that  seemed  to  prom- 
ise a  livelihood  in  the  business  of  manufactur- 
ing food  for  a  hungry  people,  either  through 
dry-farming  or  irrigation.  The  Pacific  States 
added  another  four  million.  The  line  is  still 
alternately  advancing  and  retreating  out  over 
the  inhospitable  plains,  the  region  which  Wash- 
ington Irving,  in  1835,  whimsically  pictured 
as  the  habitat,  the  last  refuge  of  a  horde  of 
mongrels  and  scamps  driven  from  fertile 
prairies  by  advancing  settlements. 

Thus  the  last  of  the  free  land  available  for 
farming  is  gone.  The  great  area  of  cut-over 
forests  in  northern  Michigan,  Wisconsin  and 
Minnesota  north  of  the  forty-fifth  parallel 
added  another  four  million  acres  for  those 
hardy  souls  not  to  be  daunted  by  the  task  of 
grubbing  a  soil  to  render  it  fit  for  the  plow. 
The  South — Mississippi,  Alabama,  Georgia 
and  Florida — added  another  two  millions  in 
cut-over  lands  and  drained  swamps. 

The  money  value  of  the  products  of  an  acre 
of  land  in  1896  was  only  one-half  what  it  was 


LINE    OF    LEAST    RESISTANCE        53 

in  1871.  The  value  of  the  same  acre  product 
to-day  is  more  than  twice  what  it  was  in  1896. 
We  have  seen  that  the  price  of  land,  culti- 
vable land,  remained  practically  unchanged 
for  half  a  century.  Men  figured  land  as  worth 
only  the  value  of  time  necessary  to  fit  it  for 
the  plow,  so  long  as  there  were  other  virgin 
acres  to  be  had  for  the  asking. 

But  what  happens  when  there  is  no  more 
land  to  be  had  for  the  asking?  The  answer 
is  told  in  the  census  figures  for  1910. 

The  tax  value  of  the  average  acre  of  farm 
land  in  1900  was  $15.57. 

The  tax  value  of  the  average  acre  of  farm 
land  in  1910  was  $32.40. 

The  increase  in  land  values  in  those  ten 
years  was  118.1  per  cent.  Land  has  suddenly 
become  capital,  means  something  beyond 
merely  a  means  of  labor.  For  every  $100  that 
land  possessed  in  value  in  1900,  it  increased 
$11.81  annually  during  the  next  ten  years. 

Stop  a  moment  and  consider  what  this 
means,  particularly  in  relation  to  the  so-called 
"back-to-the-land  movement."  These  figures 
apply  to  the  average  acre  nominally  in 
farms  —  878,000,000  acres  in  1910.  It 
weighs  in  the  same  scale  the  unproductive 


54.        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

acre — and  nearly  two  thirds  of  the  land  in 
the  possession  of  the  American  farmer  to-day 
is  unproductive  —  and  the  acre  under  the 
highest  form  of  cultivation.  In  the  vicinity  of 
New  York  there  are  truck  farms  paying,  be- 
sides wages  to  labor  and  profits,  interest  on 
a  capitalization  up  to  $2,000  an  acre.  The 
same  is  true  of  large  tracts  of  land  in  the  Far 
West — highly  cultivated  orchards  under  ex- 
pensive systems  of  irrigation.  They  all  go 
in  the  scale,  together  with  the  swamp  and  scrub 
land.  In  the  Middle  West,  where  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  farm  land  is  actually  producing 
food  (Iowa  plows  ninety-seven  per  cent,  of  her 
dominions),  the  price  of  an  acre  varies  from 
$75  to  $250  and  touches  $400  near  large  cities. 
These  figures  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  pres- 
ent stage  of  the  discussion,  but  are  cited 
merely  to  give  emphasis  to  the  term  "average 
acre." 

The  fortunes  of  the  Jeremiahs  who  stayed 
on  the  farm  when  there  was  no  one  so  poor 
as  the  farmer  form  a  strange  contrast  indeed 
with  those  of  his  brothers  who  flocked  to  the 
cities  when  hogs  touched  two  cents  on  the  hoof 
and  corn  was  fed  to  the  stove. 

Hetty  Green,  the  woman  financier,  speaks 


LINE    OF    LEAST    RESISTANCE        55 

of  the  savings  bank  as  the  best  form  of  in- 
vestment of  funds.  Yet  the  American  farmer 
who  hung  on  has  seen  his  dollars,  invested  in 
land,  return  him  an  increment — unearned  and 
apart  from  the  wages  of  labor — three  times  as 
large  annually  as  savings  bank  interest.  Hard- 
hack  goat  pastures  and  mellow  prairie  loam 
fertile  with  the  decaying  vegetation  of  thou- 
sands of  years  have  doubled  in  value  in  less 
than  nine  years.  The  "unearned  increment" 
with  which  the  American  farmer  has  been  buy- 
ing automobiles  and  gasoline  tractors  in  these 
ten  years  put  more  money  in  his  pocket  an- 
nually than  the  utmost  labor  which  he  and  his 
sons  were  able  to  expend  on  an  acre  of  pro- 
ductive land — not  scrub  land — in  any  single 
year  between  1883  and  1902. 

The  mere  possession  of  an  acre  of  improved 
land  has  become  more  valuable  to  the  land- 
lord— throwing  out  the  item  of  "rent"  entirely 
— than  the  sweat  of  the  brow  expended  by  his 
tenant  farming  at  the  sunshine-and-rain  rate 
which  has  guided  our  husbandman  since  his 
fathers  went  "west." 

Land  has  suddenly  assumed  value  as  an  in- 
vestment, not  alone  for  what  it  can  produce  in 
food,  but,  in  addition,  because  it  is  a  magic 


56        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

purse  which  has  doubled  its  contents  in  less 
than  ten  years. 

The  reason  begins  and  ends  with  the  hunger 
of  the  world  and  the  supply  of  the  land — the 
limited  floor  space  available  for  producing 
food.  William  H.  Taft,  in  a  recent  address 
before  a  Conservation  Congress,  predicted  that 
the  United  States  will  have  attained  a  popula- 
tion of  200,000,000  in  another  fifty  years  at 
the  present  rate  of  increase.  The  industry  of 
farming  represents  a  capital  of  nearly  fifty 
bilHon  dollars.  The  single  item  of  land,  with- 
out buildings,  accounts  for  twenty-eight  bil- 
lions of  this  stupendous  sum.  To  what  total 
in  dollars  and  cents  will  the  item  of  land  attain 
when  each  acre  of  to-day  is  called  on  to  feed 
two  mouths  for  every  one  it  feeds  now?  We 
are  already  ceasing  to  export  wheat. 

Is  it  not  a  remarkable  fact  that  an  industry 
which  still  depended  on  a  subsidy  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  present  century,  for  further  ex- 
pansion, should  have  attained  a  capitalization 
nearly  fifty  times  that  of  the  world's  greatest 
business  combination  in  one  decade?  Land, 
water,  timber  and  minerals,  in  the  beginnings 
of  a  nation,  are  valuable  only  in  proportion 


LINE    OF    LEAST    RESISTANCE        57 

to  the  labor  they  consume — until  there  is  no 
more  to  give  away.  Canada,  Brazil  and  the 
Argentine  are  to-day  in  the  midst  of  the 
same  process  as  regards  land  from  which 
we  have  only  now  emerged.  The  mediaeval 
way  was  for  the  sovereign  to  take  what  he  de- 
sired, providing  only  his  spears  numbered 
more  than  his  neighbor's.  Then  the  conqueror 
would  parcel  out  the  land  among  his  nobles, 
who,  in  turn,  impressed  their  serfs  as  labor. 
The  history  of  England  is  that  of  one  distri- 
bution of  land  following  close  on  the  heels  of 
another  until  the  Conqueror  set  up  a  per- 
manent order  in  the  eleventh  century.  Yet, 
even  with  the  task  of  the  distribution  of  land 
simplified  by  the  system  of  royal  warrants 
among  favorites,  agriculture  did  not  become 
established  as  an  industry  in  England  until 
three  centuries  later.  In  1350  England  saw 
the  last  of  the  crown  lands  pass  into  private 
hands,  and  at  that  time  she  was  plowing  as 
great  an  area  as  she  is  to-day. 

This  republic  found  a  different  task  con- 
fronting it.  To  establish  its  agriculture  on  a 
permanent  basis,  it  must  parcel  out  a  domain 
aggregating  nearly  one  billion  acres  to  indi- 
viduals in  small  holdings,  a  quarter-section,  of 


58        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

one  hundred  and  sixty  acres,  being  adopted  in 
the  beginning  as  a  standard. 

In  1800  the  area  of  the  United  States  was 
892,135  square  miles,  and  the  acquisition  of 
Louisiana  and  Florida  increased  the  area  to 
1,792,223  square  miles  in  1820.  Then  came 
Texas,  the  Spanish  Settlements  in  the  south- 
west, the  Gadsden  Purchase,  and  the  read- 
justment of  boundary  lines,  until,  in  1853,  we 
possessed  3,026,789  square  miles,  comprising 
continental  United  States,  excluding  Alaska. 
In  1800  there  was  a  population  of  five  million. 
In  1853,  when  the  nation  had  expanded  to  its 
ultimate  limit,  it  numbered  nearly  twenty-five 
million  souls,  about  eight  to  the  square  mile — 
eighty  acres  to  every  man,  woman  and  child. 

The  first  concern  of  the  established  govern- 
ment was  to  foster  agriculture — to  provide 
food  for  its  people.  In  fact,  as  early  as  1743 
the  British  Government  appropriated  $600,- 
000  to  encourage  the  cultivation  of  indigo  and 
other  crops  in  the  colonies.  The  colonies 
themselves  set  aside  small  sums  to  encourage 
new  lines  of  agriculture — ^hops  in  Virginia, 
mulberry  trees  for  silk  culture  in  Georgia,  and 
grapes  for  wine  growing.  Franklin,  as  the 
agent  of  Pennsylvania  in  England,  sent  home 


LINE    OF    LEAST    RESISTANCE        59 

silk  worms  and  eggs  and  mulberry  cuttings, 
and  Jefferson,  as  minister  to  France  in  1785, 
sent  seeds  of  various  grasses  and  olives  and 
peppers.  It  was  he  who  started  experiments 
in  rice  culture  in  the  Carolinas,  an  industry 
which  was  later  destined  to  produce  the  finest 
rice  in  the  world,  from  a  fine  strain  of  old- 
world  plants  of  which  he  dispatched  a  hand- 
ful of  seed. 

Under  John  Quincy  Adams  instructions 
were  sent  to  all  consuls  at  foreign  ports  to 
gather  rare  seeds  and  plants,  to  be  distributed 
through  the  office  of  the  Commissioner  of 
Patents  among  agricultural  societies,  and  a 
horticultural  park  was  established  in  Wash- 
ington— our  first  experiment  station.  So  even 
at  that  remote  period,  when  the  loom,  the  spin- 
ning wheel  and  the  soap  kettle  seemed  forever 
established  as  domestic  necessities — when  land 
and  the  products  of  land  were  so  bounteous 
that  the  people  had  no  conception  of  their 
ultimate  extent — even  in  those  days  the 
founders  were  already  looking  forward  and 
preparing  for  the  economic  problems  that 
would  confront  their  descendants.  How  re- 
mote the  time  would  be  when  their  people 
would  be  in  want  for  lack  of  land  and  the 


60        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

fruits  of  land  is  reflected  in  the  prophecy  of 
the  novelist  Cooper,  when  he  said  that  the  re- 
sources of  the  single  State  of  New  York  were 
sufiicient  to  feed  its  people  for  ages  to  come. 

In  those  days  the  main  question  was  what 
to  plant,  not  where  to  plant  it.  From  the 
Indians  they  had  corn  and  tobacco,  and  the 
same  corn  was  destined  in  another  hundred 
years  to  produce  for  the  nation  one  million 
dollars  an  hour  for  every  daylight  hour  of  its 
four  months'  growing  season. 

It  has  taken  over  a  century  to  find  out 
how  far  the  land  would  go — to  ascertain  how 
much  of  the  grand  total  of  1,937,145,000 
acres  (exclusive  of  lakes  and  rivers)  would 
eventually  prove  arable,  would  offer  sufficient 
inducements  to  the  pioneers  of  the  industry  of 
farming  to  expend  their  labor  thereon. 

Eleven  decades  of  growth,  during  which  the 
population  increased  to  nearly  one  hundred 
millions,  finally  answered  the  question,  finally 
brought  the  basic  industry  of  the  nation  to 
the  end  of  its  initial  stage  of  development — 
where  land  becomes  capital  and  exacts  its 
tithes  no  less  than  labor.  These  facts  mean 
nothing  if  they  do  not  impress  the  reader  that 
he  who  goes  back  to  the  land  to-day  is  the 


LINE    OF    LEAST    RESISTANCE        61 

pioneer  of  a  new  industry,  an  industry  which 
is  just  beginning  to  find  its  feet  after  a  hun- 
dred years  of  subsidy. 

^  ^  V^  VJC  vp 

There  is  no  subsidy  awaiting  the  Farmer  of 
To-morrow.  And,  what  is  more,  he  must  to- 
day compete  with  the  Farmer  of  Yesterday, 
the  pioneers  and  the  sons  of  pioneers  and  the 
late-coming  hordes  who  bought  land  on  the 
basis  of  the  amount  of  labor  required  to  subdue 
it — not  on  the  ultimate  basis  of  the  producing 
power  of  the  land  itself.  It  would  be  idle  to 
attempt  to  arrive  at  a  definite  percentage  of 
the  Farmers  of  Yesterday  who  are  surviving 
to  see  the  old  order  changing.  It  is  suggested 
that  with  the  beginning  of  the  second  decade 
of  the  present  century  upward  of  seventy  per 
cent,  of  the  competitors  our  modern  Jere- 
miahs must  face  in  the  business  of  producing 
food  have  not  yet  come  to  the  realization  of 
what  is  meant  by  the  term  "rent."  Even  the 
item  of  "tenants"  enumerated  in  the  1910 
census  returns  as  comprising  thirty-seven  per 
cent,  of  our  6,340,000  farmers,  means  little 
or  nothing  in  this  connection,  because  the  old 
system  of  farming  on  "shares"  is  still  the  rule 
between  landlord  and  tenant. 


62        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

The  situation  existing  between  the  Farmer 
of  Yesterday  and  our  Jeremiah  who  goes  back 
to  the  land  to-day  is  that  of  two  brothers  en- 
gaged in  the  same  business  as  competitors, 
one  outfitted  by  his  parent  with  the  tools  of 
production  and  the  other  forced  to  expend  in- 
terest-producing capital  for  the  same  plant. 
The  only  way  in  which  our  Jeremiah  can  com- 
pete with  his  subsidized  brother  with  the  same 
tools — and  there  are  none  better  to  be  had — is 
by  increasing  the  efficiency  of  his  plant — by 
speeding  up  and  producing  beyond  the  sun- 
shine-and-rain  rate  of  production  that  con- 
tents the  Farmer  of  Yesterday. 

The  subsidized  farmer  of  to-day  is  a  pros- 
perous individual  for  this  one  reason:  the  $16 
or  $17  he  is  now  receiving  for  the  product  of 
his  average  acre  is  still  wages  to  him,  nothing 
more.  His  land  cost  him  nothing;  then  why 
should  he  keep  books  and  pay  tribute  to 
Capital  when  his  land,  so  far  as  he  is  con- 
cerned, is  still  only  a  means  of  labor?  Yet, 
that  is  the  very  first  account  to  eat  in  on  the 
returns  of  the  man  who  goes  back  to  the  land 
to-day,  and  when  he  scans  the  result  he  finds 
that  his  antiquated  methods  leave  him  bank- 
rupt.    With  hini  it  is  not  the  simple  act  of 


LINE    OF    LEAST    RESISTANCE        63 

taking  money  out  of  one  pocket  and  putting  it 
in  another.  He  has  come  to  know  what  capital 
means,  what  it  exacts,  because  he  must  buy 
his  plant  before  he  can  begin  to  expend  his 
labor  on  it.  Yet  his  brother,  still  vastly  in 
the  majority,  rolls  his  receipts  into  one  and 
calls  them  wages — and  very  good  wages  they 
are  indeed,  when  labor  is  so  favorably  situated 
that  it  can  usurp  the  tithe  of  rent. 

And,  in  addition  to  pocketing  as  wages  that 
portion  which  we  late-comers  must  pay  as  in- 
terest on  capital,  he  has  lived  to  see  a  sensa- 
tional rise  in  the  value  of  his  land  itself, 
through  no  .effort  on  his  part — a  bonus  to  the 
individual  from  a  source  which  Mr.  Albert  Jay 
Nock  (American  Magazine,  November,  1912) 
calls  "the  social  value  of  land."  He  calls  at- 
tention to  the  fact  that  every  increase  in  pop- 
ulation of  the  City  of  New  York  reacts  upon 
real  estate  values  as  definitely  as  does  the  in- 
crease in  steam  pressure  react  upon  a  steam 
gage.  He  cites  the  fact  that  the  birth  of  a 
child,  a  pauper,  weak  and  rachitic  though  it 
may  be,  adds  $849  to  the  aggregate  value  of 
New  York  real  estate.  A  hundred  men  out  of 
employment,  sleeping  on  park  benches,  pro- 
ducing nothing,  consuming  charity,  add,  by 


64.        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

their  presence  alone,  $84,900  to  the  city's 
realty  values. 

Now  apply  this  same  idea  to  the  878,000,000 
acres  of  farm  land  with  which  the  American 
farmer  has  been  subsidized  by  his  government. 
The  same  idea  applies  here,  though  in  another 
phase.  Land  in  cities  depends  for  its  value 
on  the  desire  of  a  mass  of  people  to  get  to- 
gether in  the  most  favorable  place  to  carry 
on  the  process  of  manufacture  and  distribu- 
tion. Farm  land,  the  limited  floor  space  of 
the  food  plant,  depends  for  its  value  on  the 
number  of  mouths  to  he  fed  by  its  products. 

We  have  seen  that  the  birth  of  a  child  adds 
$839  to  the  value  of  the  city's  real  estate. 
What  does  the  birth  of  a  child,  the  addition 
of  one  to  the  population  of  the  United  States, 
mean  to  the  pockets  of  the  Farmer  of  Yes- 
terday, who  "hung  on"?  What  does  the  ad- 
mission of  every  single  soul  of  the  ten  million 
aliens  who  flocked  to  our  shores  during  the 
decade  ending  in  1910  add  to  the  value  of 
land — farm  land? 

The  answer  is  a  simple  problem  in  arith- 
metic. The  increase  in  population  in  ten  years 
was  sixteen  millions.  The  increase  in  the  dol- 
lar value  of  the  farm  land  in  the  same  period 


LINE    OF    LEAST    RESISTANCE        65 

was  fifteen  billions.  Every  new-born  child, 
every  "undesirable  alien"  enumerated  among 
that  sixteen  million,  added  nine  hundred  and 
thirty-six  dollars  and  eighty-six  cents  to  the 
value  of  our  farms.  Even  Xew  York,  with 
its  five  million  souls  and  its  Stock  Exchange 
land  assessed  at  thirty  thousand  dollars  a  front 
foot,  does  not  compare  with  the  domain  of  the 
American  farmer  who  has  "hung  on." 

Some  may  object  that  the  comparison  is 
inept.  They  will  say  that  it  would  hold  good 
if  the  population  of  the  United  States  con- 
sumed all  its  land  produced.  But  it  does. 
That  is  the  point.  And  more.  Exports  of 
food-stuffs  fell  from  over  twenty-five  per  cent. 
of  the  total  produced  in  1898  to  less  than  five 
per  cent,  in  1912.  And  imports  of  the  same 
commodities  had  the  better  of  it  by  a  ratio  of 
230  to  99  (in  millions  of  dollars  value)  in  the 
latter  year.  We  consume  even  more  raw  food- 
stuffs than  we  produce. 

Every  Jeremiah  who  goes  back  to  the  land 
adds  to  the  value  of  that  land  by  his  mere 
presence.  To  quote  again  from  Mr.  Nock's 
article,  he  is  in  the  position  of  a  lecturer,  who, 
arriving  late  at  a  small  town,  found  no  one 
to  meet  him.    He  was  unknown  to  the  door- 


66        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

keeper  and  had  to  buy  a  ticket  to  hear  himself 
lecture. 

Farmers'  Bulletin  No.  511,  on  farm  book- 
keeping, recently  issued,  ventures  the  as- 
sertion : 

"There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  majority 
of  farmers  are  really  living  on  the  interest  of 
their  investment  rather  than  on  the  profits  of 
their  farms." 

And  again: 

"Many  farmers  would  be  better  off  finan- 
cially if  they  sold  their  farms,  loaned  the 
money  at  five  per  cent,  and  hired  themselves 
out  at  current  wages." 

These  statements  may  be  true,  except  for 
one  factor  the  writer  overlooks — the  social 
Value  of  land.  If  he  had  said  that  the  farmer 
would  be  better  off  if  he  rented  his  land,  even 
on  the  usual  unbusinesslike  basis  of  "shares," 
and  hired  himself  out  at  current  wages,  then 
he  would  have  broached  a  glittering  possibility. 
No  matter  what  the  Farmer  of  Yesterday 
does,  he  must  "hang  on" — no  matter  whether 
he  works  his  acres  at  the  antiquated  sunshine- 
and-rain  rate  or  lets  some  one  else  do  it  for 
him.     The  American  farmer  has  doubled  his 


LINE    OF    LEAST    RESISTANCE        67 

capital  in  less  than  nine  years  by  doing  nothing 
but  "hang  on"  and  counting  the  increasing 
number  of  mouths  to  be  fed  from  his  limited 
floor  space.  That,  after  all,  is  the  source  of 
the  greatest  profit  in  farms  in  the  last  ten 
years,  and  must  continue  to  be  so,  in  increasing 
ratio.  It  is  better  business  even  than  the 
sleight-of-hand  performance  of  pocketing  rent 
in  the  name  of  wages  as  he  did  twenty  years 
ago — and  as  the  old-line  farmer  is  still  doing 
to-day. 

All  of  which  brings  us  back  to  the  editor 
and  his  advice  to  the  back-to-the-lander  with 
the  paltry  five  thousand  dollars. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE    GLEANERS 

However,  there  is  another  side  to  the  ques- 
tion— ^happily  for  Jeremiah  who  wants  to  go 
back  to  the  land.  When  the  statement  is  made 
that  all  our  public  lands  have  at  length  passed 
into  private  hands,  it  may  mean  everything 
or  nothing,  according  to  one's  viewpoint.  It 
does  mean,  for  instance,  that  there  is  no  more 
free  arable  land  to  be  had  for  the  asking.  It 
does  not  mean,  however,  that  all  of  the  land 
nominally  in  farms  is  actually  under  cultiva- 
tion, is  actually  producing  food. 

The  Bureau  of  Soils,  of  the  Federal  De- 
partment of  Agriculture,  made  this  statement 
in  1898,  in  reviewing  the  soil  resources  of 
the  United  States: 

"Although  practically  all  of  the  arable  land 
has  now  passed  into  private  hands,  less  than 
one-fourth  of  the  land  nominally  in  farms  is 
actually  under  cultivation." 

68 


THE    GLEANERS 


69 


This  statement  does  not  assume  to  be  spe- 
cific. The  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  the  De- 
partment of  Agriculture  has  since  narrowed 
the  measure  of  cultivated  land  down  to  actual 
acres  and  percentage  of  the  whole.  In  de- 
termining the  value  of  the  product  of  an  acre, 
these  statisticians  chose  wheat,  corn,  oats, 
barley,  rye,  buckwheat,  potatoes,  tobacco,  hay 
and  cotton  as  constituting  ninety-five  per 
cent,  of  the  cultivated  area  of  the  United 
States.  During  the  closing  years  of  the  first 
decade  of  the  present  century  the  acres  de- 
voted to  these  crops  had  begun  to  mark  time 
after  nearly  a  century  of  uninterrupted  ad- 
vance. The  figures  for  1910  are  representa- 
tive and  are  given  herewith: 


Com 114,002,000 

Wheat 49,205,000 

Hay 45,691,000 

Oats 35,288,000 

Cotton 32,403,000 

Barley 7.257,000 


Potatoes 3,591,000 

Rye 2,028,000 

Tobacco 1,234,000 

Buckwheat 826,000 


Total 291,523,000 


Adding  the  remaining  five  per  cent.,  we 
have  roughly  307  million  acres  actually  under 
cultivation.  It  is  this  three  hundred  and 
seven  million  acres,  together  with  its  buildings, 
machinery  and  live  stock  that  constitutes  the 
bulk  of  the  fifty  billion  dollars  of  capital  in- 
vested in  farming. 


70        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

We  have  already  seen  that  878,000,000  acres 
are  nominally  in  farms.  What  has  become  of 
the  remaining  570,000,000  acres — an  area 
twice  the  size  of  the  German  Empire  and 
France  combined — which  the  homesteader  has 
proved  as  farm  land  and  upon  which  he  is 
willing  to  pay  taxes  on  an  average  acre  valu- 
ation of  over  thirty-two  dollars.  The  answer 
is  vital  to  the  Gleaner. 

The  census  enumerators  adopt  a  system  in 
accounting  for  the  arable  area  that  is  a  little 
more  flexible  than  that  of  the  statisticians  who 
count  crops.  The  census  enumerators  rank 
477,000,000  acres  of  the  total  of  878,000,000, 
as  being  "improved" — that  is,  in  addition  to 
being  cultivated,  a  large  area  of  it  is  devoted 
to  pastures  and  wood  lots.  This  figure  still 
leaves  over  400,000,000  acres  nominally  in 
farms,  as  standing  idle  in  the  face  of  the  soar- 
ing prices  of  food.  Is  it  not  a  striking  fact 
in  relation  to  an  industry  which  counted  its 
plant— its  land— as  worth  $28,000,000,000  in 
1910,  that  nearly  one-half  of  that  land  was 
idle  and  non-producing  at  that  time?  Over 
400,000,000  acres  has  been  accepted  as 
a  gift,  and,  found  to  be  too  stubborn  for  cul- 
tivation so  long  as  there  is  mellow  land  in 


72        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

sight,  is  filed  away  on  the  back  shelf  for  future 
reference. 

Let  us  call  the  original  pioneers  the 
"Reapers."  They  picked  and  chose  with  dis- 
criminating taste.  When  we  read  the  early 
history  of  the  expansion  of  the  American  far- 
mer over  the  rich  prairies,  we  find  the  same 
picture  of  waste  that  we  find  in  the  early 
romances  of  the  plains,  where  it  was  usual  for 
a  huntsman  to  slaughter  a  giant  buffalo  for 
its  succulent  tongue  alone,  abandoning  the 
huge  carcass  to  carrion.  The  early  settlers 
cast  aside  millions  of  acres  that  were  not  prime 
and  ripe  for  skinning  in  their  rush  to  find  the 
fat  river-bottoms,  where  the  least  amount  of 
labor  would  furnish  the  maximum  returns. 
Man  is  innately  a  conserver  of  his  own  labor, 
with  no  urging.  The  same  spirit  is  evidenced 
to-day  in  the  high  capitalization  of  these  iden- 
tical river-bottoms  of  the  western  prairies. 
The  land  which  will  yield  most  bountifully 
for  the  least  amount  of  labor  must  always  be 
the  most  valuable  in  the  eyes  of  a  race  that  is  a 
conserver  of  its  own  labor  first  and  foremost. 
With  the  exception  of  the  earliest  pioneers 
in  New  England  (who  built  uncounted 
miles  of  stone  walls  and  grubbed  stumps  in 


THE    GLEANERS  73 

reclaiming  land  that  never  should  have  been 
put  under  the  plow)  the  early  Reapers  tested 
and  rejected  as  they  advanced,  seeking  for- 
ever the  fattest  acres.  If  one  could  construct 
a  map  showing  the  area  actually  under  culti- 
vation for  each  of  the  several  decades  the  re- 
sult would  show  grotesque  empires  indeed. 
Note  the  Kentucky  woodsmen  in  1804,  when 
the  population  east  of  the  Mississippi  was  very 
tenuous  indeed,  starting  forth  into  unknown 
regions  with  their  long  trains  of  wagons,  with 
their  women  and  children  and  their  cattle. 
Iowa  and  Illinois  offered  no  inducements  to 
them  near  at  home.  The  land  was  so  bounte- 
ous all  about  them  that  surely  somewhere  in 
the  region  between  the  great  river  and  the 
mountains  there  must  be  other  empires  of  still 
greater  riches.  The  Oregon  Trail  in  the  late 
'forties  was  a  sympton  of  the  same  unrest — 
greediness,  conservation  of  labor  run  riot. 
They  traveled  three  thousand  miles  with  ox 
teams,  seeking  not  Ultima  Thule,  but  Elysium. 
It  was  not  until  after  the  Civil  War  that  the 
homesteaders  arrived  in  sufficient  number  to 
begin  blocking  off  the  Corn  Belt  systematic- 
ally. The  map  on  page  71,  taken  from  the 
1910  Census  Reports  on  Agriculture,  illus- 


74        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

trates  the  domain  of  the  American  farmer 
acquired  by  the  process  of  homesteading.  It 
is  especially  striking  in  view  of  the  oft- 
repeated  statement  that  "free  land  is  a  thing 
of  the  past."  It  illustrates  how  an  inexorable 
Nature  has  interposed  an  impregnable  ob- 
stacle against  the  further  advance  of  the  plow 
on  the  rainless  bench  lands  of  the  western 
plains. 

Right  here  is  the  turning  point  between  the 
old  system  of  subsidized  farming  and  the  per- 
manent order  of  agriculture  as  an  industry 
that  must  stand  on  its  own  feet.  Here  the 
Farmer  of  Yesterday  becomes  an  anomaly  and 
the  Farmer  of  To-morrow  enters  to  take  up  the 
task  of  producing  food.  Here  is  where  our 
Jeremiahs  enter,  go  back  to  the  land,  facing 
new  problems,  new  conditions.  And  when  we 
have  examined  the  field  that  lies  before  the 
pioneers  of  the  new  industry  of  farming  who 
will  say  that  their  opportunities  are  not 
immeasurably  brighter  than  those  of  the 
Farmers  of  Yesterday  who  went  west 
with  their  yokes  of  oxen  and  their  iron 
kettles  ? 

The  industry  develops  from  this  point  along 


THE    GLEANERS  75 

two  distinct  lines,  distinct  as  to  method,  yet 
marching  toward  the  same  goal : 

First,  comes  the  reclamation  of  waste  land. 

Second,  comes  the  intensifying  of  cultural 
methods — forcing  each  single  arable  acre  to 
produce  two  or  three  times  as  much  food  as 
it  produced  under  the  elemental  system 
guided  by  the  sunshine-and-rain  gage  of  pro- 
duction. 

The  Farmer  of  To-morrow  must  either 
speed  up  the  rate  of  production  on  fat,  highly 
capitalized  corn-belt  acres,  by  means  of  an 
additional  expenditure  of  capital  or  else  look 
about  him  for  raw,  non-producing  land,  upon 
which  to  expend  his  labor  to  fit  it  as  a  com- 
petitor of  the  fat  acres  which  are  beyond  his 
means. 

When  a  horse  begins  to  eat  its  head  off  there 
are  two  ways  out  of  the  difficulty:  Either 
work  the  beast  hard  enough  to  earn  its  keep 
or  look  about  for  a  means  of  transportation 
with  a  more  reasonable  appetite. 

Land  has  the  habit  of  "eating  its  head  off" 
too.  It  becomes  greedy  when  it  becomes 
scarce,  when  it  assumes  value.  It  exacts  in- 
terest— rent,  and  finally  rent  grows  so  greedy 
that  there  is  nothing  left  for  wages.     Then 


76        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

is  the  time  to  apply  the  horse  medicine.  Either 
work  it  hard  enough  to  pay  its  keep  (this  costs 
time  and  money  just  as  full  steam  consumes 
more  coal  than  half  steam)  or  look  around  for 
land  that  exacts  less. 

Take  a  concrete  example.  It  requires  a 
two-million-dollar  plant — a  twenty-story  sky- 
scraper— to  show  a  profit  on  a  building  site 
at  Broad  and  Wall  streets,  New  York  City, 
where  land  is  assessed  at  $30,000  a  front  foot. 
Not  so  very  long  ago  a  site  at  this  corner  was 
occupied  by  a  two-story  building.  The  owner 
sold  out  when  the  cost  of  keeping  the  property 
began  to  eat  up  his  profits.  Then  a  syndicate 
with  time  and  money  erected  a  two-million- 
dollar  sky-scraper  on  the  site,  thus  working 
the  plot  of  land  hard  enough  to  pay  its  keep. 
The  original  owner  moved  further  up  town, 
where  a  cheaper  lot  answered  his  modest  needs. 

Farmers  adopt  the  same  plan.  Seven  hun- 
dred thousand  farmers  have  crossed  the  line 
into  Canada  in  ten  years — moving  "farther 
up  town."  Many  of  them,  of  course,  possessed 
only  a  railroad  ticket,  having  come  too  late 
to  find  a  homestead  under  the  Stars  and 
Stripes.  But  a  goodly  number  were  farmers 
from  Illinois  and  Iowa,  carrying  satchels  full 


THE    GLEANERS  77 

of  "unearned  increment."  Corn  belt  acres  had 
begun  to  demand  too  much  coal  to  start  the 
boilers  according  to  their  way  of  farming. 

These  two  types  of  farmers  are  growing  to 
be  clearly  defined  now  that  the  last  of  our 
public  land  has  passed  into  private  hands.  One 
is  like  the  owner  of  the  two-story  building 
on  the  sky-scraper  plot.  When  land  values 
get  beyond  his  methods  he  either  improves  his 
plant  or  sells  out  to  some  one  who  can,  and 
migrates  to  cheaper  land.  The  best  is  too 
good  for  him.  He  will  take  second  best  if 
he  can  find  it. 

The  other  type — and  it  still  numbers  nearly 
seventy  per  cent,  of  the  farmers  of  to-day — 
is  like  an  old  druggist  in  lower  Broadway, 
New  York  City,  who  won  local  fame  by  re- 
fusing an  offer  of  enough  five-dollar  gold 
pieces  to  cover  his  plot.  He  refused  to  sell. 
Why  should  he  sell,  he  argued?  He  got  his 
plant  for  nothing — inherited  it  from  his  father 
when  Canal  street  was  a  cow  path.  His  pills 
still  pay  his  taxes  and  keep  his  roof  whole. 
That  is  all  he  wants. 

Of  the  latter  class  are  the  competitors,  our 
hypothetical  friend,  Jeremiah  (whom  we  met 
in  the  first  chapter) ,  encountered  when  he  bor- 


78        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

rowed  money  to  buy  an  Iowa  farm  on  his 
back-to-the-land  venture.  He  found  he  could 
not  compete  with  the  man  who  looked  upon 
his  land  merely  as  a  means  of  labor  because 
he  got  it  for  nothing  or  inherited  it  from  his 
father,  like  the  old  druggist.  Nor  could  he 
compete  with  the  new  type  of  farmer  who 
improved  his  plant.  Jeremiah  did  not  have 
the  time  and  money. 

Then  he  must  become  a  Gleaner.  If  he 
will  consult  the  figures  a  few  pages  back  he 
will  find  that,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  we  still 
call  ourselves  an  agricultural  nation,  less  than 
twenty-five  per  cent,  of  the  land  area  of  the 
United  States  is  actually  producing  food. 
Throw  out  a  solid  billion  acres  of  mountain 
scenery,  sand  and  arid  plateaus  and  we  still 
have  the  878,000,000  acres  nominally  in  farms. 
Cut  this  last  figure  in  two  and  we  find  400,- 
000,000  acres  of  farm  land  standing  idle. 

Germany,  a  nation  which  makes  no  preten- 
sions as  an  agricultural  state,  has  subdued 
forty-five  per  cent,  of  her  total  land  area.  The 
Kaiser  sent  a  commission  to  study  us  and  our 
industries,  and  the  learned  gentlemen  went 
back  home  and  reported  that  the  Fatherland 
need  not  fear  competition  from  the  United 


THE    GLEANERS  79 

States  until  the  end  of  our  raw  land  was  in 
sight — a  far  cry.  The  German,  who  has  re- 
duced the  science  of  gleaning  to  its  ultimate 
atom,  cannot  understand  why  the  cost  of  living 
should  be  a  problem  among  us  when  we  ignore 
three  out  of  every  four  acres,  good  and  bad. 
And  the  Hollander,  entering  or  leaving  New 
York  City  (with  its  market  made  up  of  the 
hunger  of  five  million  people),  cannot  under- 
stand why  the  Newark  Meadows — almost  as 
big  as  their  Harlem  See — is  not  reclaimed 
from  the  tides  and  set  to  growing  vegetables. 
Germany  supports  sixty  million  people  on  an 
area  smaller  in  size  and  less  fertile  than  our 
single  State  of  Texas — and  Texas  is  one- 
third  arid. 

It  is  these  three  out  of  every  four  acres  that 
we  do  not  farm  that  are  of  supreme  interest 
and  importance  to  the  Farmer  of  To-morrow. 
In  these  three  out  of  every  four  acres  there 
is  land  to  be  drained,  land  to  be  irrigated, 
land  to  be  cleared  of  tree  stumps  left  in  the 
wakes  of  a  lumbering  industry  that  had  ruth- 
lessly slashed  and  burned  with  no  thought  of 
the  morrow.  And  there  is  land  to  be  humored 
with  specialized  crops.  Let  us  follow  out  the 
process  of  gleaning  that  is  already  under  way. 


80        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

and,  while  we  are  tracing  the  opportunities  and 
problems  of  the  late-comers,  the  Farmers  of 
To-morrow,  we  will  arrive  at  an  estimate  of 
what  the  cultivated  farm  area  of  the  nation 
must  eventually  number  in  acres  to  feed  the 
hordes  of  another  hundred  or  another  five 
hundred  years. 

Let  us  take  a  specific  instance  of  how  the 
problem  of  cheap  land  was  actually  worked 
out  by  one  division  of  the  army  of  Gleaners. 

Several  years  ago  some  Illinois  farmers 
(homesteaders  or  fire-sale  investors  of  a  gen- 
eration ago)  found  that  the  pace  of  their  fat 
prime  acres  was  growing  too  hot  for  them; 
so  they  sold  out  and  pocketed  their  unearned 
increment — which  had  increased  118  per  cent, 
in  ten  years  without  any  effort  on  their  part. 
.They  might  have  gone  to  Canada  and  got  a 
quarter-section  at  $1.25  per  acre  and  another 
thrown  in  for  good  measure.  But  they  didn't 
go  to  Canada.  They  had  an  idea  that  oppor- 
tunity lay  just  outside  their  door.  And  they 
found  it  in  an  embryonic  stage. 

It  was  just  across  the  river  from  them,  on 
the  west  bank  of  the  Mississippi.  It  was  the 
far-famed  Iowa  Slough. 


THE    GLEANERS  81 

The  slough  was  a  great  place  for  ducks — 
that  was  all  they  knew  of  it  at  first — and  if 
there  is  any  land  in  the  world  more  down- 
right good-for-nothing  as  farm  land  than  a 
duck  slough  they  would  like  to  see  it.  This 
patch  was  a  strip  of  swamp  forty-one  miles 
long,  containing  forty-five  thousand  acres,  just 
north  of  the  town  of  Burlington — a  bottom- 
less pit  of  muck  to  catch  the  wash  from  the 
prairies.  So  far  it  had  failed  to  attract  any 
attention  outside  of  sporting  circles,  except  for 
a  line  in  the  mortality  statistics  every  ten  years 
— a  line  running  something  like  this : 

"Deaths  from  malaria,  per  thousand  total, 
52.5  in  1870." 

The  State  of  Iowa  had  accepted  it  with  the 
scorn  of  a  well-fed  tramp  back  in  1850,  when 
the  lawmakers  at  Washington,  finding  that 
land  was  not  being  given  away  fast  enough  by 
any  of  the  methods  then  known,  devised  a 
statute  transferring  all  the  swamp  and  over- 
flow land  to  the  various  states. 

A  suspicion  that  they  might  be  giving  away 
more  than  they  knew  caused  them  to  limit  the 
gift  eight  years  later  to  the  states  actually 


82        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

enrolled  in  the  Union  in  1850,  and  two  years 
later  to  include  Oregon  and  Minnesota. 

This  particular  swamp,  like  all  others,  pro- 
duced nothing  but  chills  and  fever  for  another 
generation.  Along  toward  the  'eighties  it  be- 
gan to  be  a  positive  nuisance,  because  at  high 
water  steamboats  plying  the  river  got  into  the 
habit  of  getting  lost  among  its  bogs  and  bay- 
ous. The  government  thereupon  walled  in  this 
slough  with  a  good,  strong  levee — not  to  en- 
courage agriculture,  but  to  keep  the  river  in 
its  proper  place. 

A  few  adventurous  settlers,  returning  from 
western  Kansas  with  the  tale  of  its  having 
forgotten  to  rain  out  there  for  five  years, 
squatted  back  of  the  river  wall.  A  village 
sprang  up  on  a  bump  of  muck.  It  was  called 
Oakville;  later,  Oakville  Prairie — by  courtesy 
— ^there  being  no  prairie  in  sight  except  on  top 
of  the  bluff.  Oakville  didn't  thrive.  It  wasn't 
a  boom  town.  The  wash  from  the  hills,  the 
seepage  from  the  river,  and  the  spring  rains 
kept  it  pretty  well  submerged.  And  the  cost 
of  quinine  outran  tax  bills. 

Then  an  imaginative  seer,  whose  name  has 
been  lost  in  the  whirl  of  subsequent  events, 
propounded  this  query: 


THE    GLEANERS  83 

"If  it  pays  to  pump  water  into  an  arid  town- 
ship west  of  the  rain  belt,  why  wouldn't  it  pay 
us  to  pump  water  out?  Water — too  much  of 
it — ^is  all  that  stands  between  us  and  pros- 
perity." 

The  suggestion  to  undertake  the  task  of 
pumping  the  water  out  of  a  forty-five-thousand 
acre  catch-basin  as  full  of  holes  as  a  sieve  did 
not  catch  on  very  fast  in  Oakville.  But  the 
State  of  Iowa  officially  inclined  an  ear. 

Iowa  plows  ninety-seven  out  of  every  one 
hundred  acres  in  her  dominion,  and  she  was 
beginning  to  worry  over  the  increasing  num- 
ber of  her  farmers  who  were  cashing  in  their 
unearned  increment  and  escaping  with  it  to 
Saskatchewan.  Her  engineers  went  to  work 
quietly,  and  shortly  they  had  the  upper  seven- 
teen thousand  acres  of  the  Iowa  Slough  or- 
ganized as  the  Louisa-Des  Moines  Drainage 
District  No.  4.  Almost  before  the  web- 
footed  farmers  splashing  around  in  their  corn 
fields  back  of  the  river  wall  knew  what  was 
happening,  steam  dredges  began  scooping 
arteries  and  laterals  among  the  muck  and  ooze. 

Now  it  takes  a  community,  especially  a 
malarious  one,  a  long  time  to  wake  up  to  an 
idea.    Oakville  slumbered  on  for  a  year  or  two. 


84        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

Then — enter  the  Illinois  farmers  who  had 
sensed  opportunity  close  at  hand.  They  en- 
tered by  twos  and  threes,  so  as  not  to  arouse 
suspicion.  They  began  buying  land.  They 
offered  ten,  fifteen,  twenty-five,  finally  fifty 
dollars  an  acre  for  the  duck  pond.  A  fair  pro- 
portion of  the  natives  swallowed  hook  and 
sinker.  They  had  got  their  land  for  a  few 
cents  or  a  few  dollars  an  acre,  and  the  cur- 
rent quotations  seemed  to  discount  prosperity 
beyond  posterity. 

But  a  good  many  of  them  held  on,  and — 
for  a  few  years  more  ate  quinine  and  watched 
the  toothing  steam  dredges. 

Six  years  passed  and  still  there  was  nothing 
extraordinary  in  the  appearance  of  the  duck 
preserve.  There  was  just  as  much  water  as 
ever.  Nestling  against  the  river  wall,  half 
way  down  toward  Burlington,  however,  there 
was  a  low-lying  house  of  cement.  Duck- 
hunters  with  sufficient  curiosity  to  peer  in  at 
the  windows  would  have  seen  a  lot  of  queer- 
looking  machinery  standing  knee-deep  in 
water.  That  collection  of  machinery  consisted 
of  two  three-hundred-and-fifty-horse-power 
engines  calculated  to  drive  two  fifty-inch 
pumps. 


THE    GLEANERS  85 

After  a  while  the  pumps  began  to  work. 
Each  had  a  capacity  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  gallons  a  minute,  three  hundred  and 
fifty  second-feet;  enough  water,  if  driven 
through  a  Gunnison  Tunnel  or  impounded  be- 
hind a  Roosevelt  Dam,  to  capitalize  sixty  thou- 
sand acres  of  the  land  west  at  one  thousand 
dollars  each.  The  malarious  little  vil- 
lage of  Oakville  Prairie  rose  out  of  its  wallow 
gradually  and  surveyed  its  environs.  It  sur- 
veyed seventeen  thousand  acres  of  corn  land 
richer  than  a  green  house,  as  fertile  as  Egypt. 

To-day,  where  the  duck-hunter  used  to  punt 
his  scow,  there  are  hard,  level  roads,  grain 
elevators,  fenced  fields,  and  diversified  farm- 
ing of  the  highest  type.  The  only  lament  is 
the  lament  of  lost  opportunity.  The  former 
amphibians  who  sold  out  at  fifty  dollars  are 
the  saddest  of  the  lot.  The  twenty-seven 
thousand  acres  of  the  lower  district  were  sur- 
veyed and  contracts  let,  and  in  another  few 
years  the  old  Iowa  Slough  will  have  passed 
forever  into  history. 

Incidentally,  this  and  other  drainage  work 
in  Iowa  and  Illinois  has  reduced  the  death- 
rate  from  malaria  from  52.5  to  8.6  per  1000 
since  1870. 


86        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

And  what  did  it  cost  ? 

It  cost  $9.31  an  acre!  Spread  out  thin  in 
ten  annual  instalments.  The  pumping  plant 
is  maintained  at  a  small  cost  pro  rata,  like  a 
cooperative  irrigation  system.  One  pump 
handles  the  spring  floods  very  easily.  Gravity 
takes  care  of  the  drainage  during  the  normal 
stages  of  the  river. 

The  former  amphibians  no  longer  dread  the 
spring  rains.  Every  shower  washes  down  the 
fertile  silt  of  the  highly  capitalized  Iowa 
prairie  up  on  the  bluff,  to  add  to  the  bank 
account  of  Oakville.  Therefore  Oakville,  dry- 
shod,  has  become  capitalized  itself  and  has 
built  a  railroad  to  tap  this  miniature  Holland 
in  America  north  and  south. 

This  and  hundreds  of  other  similar  com- 
munities that  have  been  reclaimed  from  muck 
beds  since  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  free 
land  came  in  sight  are  the  anomalies  of  a 
rapidly  expanding  industry.  In  dollars  and 
cents  returns,  these  reclaimed  areas  present 
sensational  results.  Their  owners  find  rail- 
roads, markets,  all  the  advantages  that  have 
served  to  capitalize  prairie  acres  at  figures 
ranging  to  and  beyond  $150,  and  the  deep  beds 


THE    GLEANERS  87 

of  silt  deposited  by  centuries  of  erosion  pro- 
vide, once  drained,  a  bank  account  of  fertility- 
even  beyond  the  greedy  dreams  of  the  early 
Reapers.  There  are  undrained  swamps  in 
Louisiana  where  soundings  two,  or  even  three, 
thousand  feet  in  depth  have  failed  to  find  bot- 
tom in  the  alluvium. 

Naturally,  reclamation  and  expansion  over 
prime  free  land  overlap.  And  when  we  seek 
to  ascertain  in  what  localities  reclamation  pro- 
jects first  appear,  we  look  to  the  districts 
where  the  surrounding  acres  are  producing 
most  bountifully  and,  therefore,  are  highest  in 
price.  The  first  great  projects  were  among 
the  rich  plantations  in  the  lowlands  fringing 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  lands  devoted  to  sugar 
cane  and  cotton.  But  the  projects  were 
isolated,  little  heard  of,  until  wise  farmers  in 
the  Mississippi  River  Valley  began  to  look 
ahead,  about  the  beginning  of  the  last  decade 
of  the  last  century.  The  prairie  farms  about 
the  Illinois  River,  in  the  State  of  Illinois,  and 
adjacent  portions  of  the  Mississippi  River 
have  for  fifty  years  held  the  blue  ribbon  among 
our  acres,  and  early  became  so  highly  capital- 
ized that  the  late  comer  who  would  conserve 
labor  as  the  worker  of  these  fat  acres  was 


88        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

forced  to  pay  the  price.  It  became  simply  a 
question  of  dollars  and  cents  with  the  owners 
of  these  swamp  lands,  and  when  the  States 
themselves  stepped  forward  and  offered  to 
undertake  the  task,  providing  cooperation 
could  be  secured  among  the  owners,  the  move- 
ment was  under  way.  Nevertheless,  though 
pumping  was  attempted  as  early  as  1890  along 
the  Illinois  River,  it  was  not  until  five  years 
later  that  any  considerable  areas  were  mapped 
as  "projects."  By  that  time  the  engineers, 
Federal  and  State,  had  arrived  at  satisfactory 
solutions  of  the  difficult  problems  that  pre- 
sented themselves.  By  1910  ten  separate 
plants  were  in  operation,  aggregating  85,000 
acres  and  utilizing  2,000  horse-power.  The 
census  showed  three  other  projects  nearing 
completion,  adding  33,000  acres  to  the  re- 
claimed tracts.  Along  the  Mississippi,  be- 
tween Muscatine,  Iowa,  and  Hannibal,  Mo., 
over  150,000  acres  of  rich  corn-belt  land  has 
been  reclaimed  by  pumps  and  the  work  is 
still  in  its  infancy.  Cooperation  has  been  the 
means  of  accomplishing  the  addition  of  this 
magnificent  empire  to  the  States  of  Illinois, 
Iowa  and  Missouri — cooperation  and  the  con- 
viction on  the  part  of  the  law  makers  that 


THE    GLEANERS  89 

such  work  is  a  public  function  and  deserves 
the  aid  of  the  States.  Tracts  as  small  as  3,000 
acres  have  been  drained  profitably,  but,  in 
general,  it  has  been  found  that  the  cost  per 
acre  is  lower  in  proportion  to  the  size  of  the 
tract,  and  10,000  acres  has  been  adopted  as 
the  most  economical  unit.  As  to  the  cost  of 
reclamation,  the  following  paragraph  from 
Bulletin  243,  Office  of  Experiment  Stations, 
"Land  Drainage  by  Means  of  Pumps,"  gives 
a  definite  statement  of  the  experience  of  these 
Middle  West  farmers  who  were  the  pioneers 
of  the  reclamation  movement: 

"Experience  along  the  Illinois  River  shows 
that  the  first  cost  of  the  general  district  drain- 
age improvements,  including  ditches,  levees, 
and  pumping  plants,  has  varied  between  $15 
and  $30  an  acre.  All  of  the  cheapest  pro- 
jects have  now  (1911)  been  developed;  how- 
ever, there  is  a  growing  tendency  to  under- 
take the  reclamation  of  more  expensive  dis- 
tricts in  which  the  cost  may  exceed  by  $10 
or  $20  per  acre  the  amount  just  stated.  The 
cost  of  clearing  the  land  and  field  drainage 
may  be  between  $5  and  $20  an  acre.  Hence, 
in  places,  the  total  cost  for  putting  the  land 
into  profitable  productive  condition  may  be  as 
high  as  $50  an  acre.    Such  land  is  then  worth 


90        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW  \ 

from  $100  to  $125  per  acre,  according  to  the        ; 
present  value  of  the  contiguous  uplands." 

In  the  same  survey,  the  cost  of  maintaining 
the  plant,  after  it  is  once  in  operation,  is  ap- 
proximated as  between  30  and  60  cents  per  j 
acre  per  year,  and,  of  course,   considerably  j 
lower  in  dry  years.     The  reference  to  "dry  | 
years"  suggests  the  wonderful  possibilities  that  I 
are  following  in  the  wake  of  this  system.    As  i 
these  lands  receive  their  water  not  only  from  i 
the  skies,  but  also  from  seepage,  it  is  possible  j 
to  maintain  the  optimum  moisture  content  in  '• 
the   soil   during  the   entire   growing   season, 
because   even   in   dry  years   these   favorably  , 
situated  lands,  once  scorned,  have  a  super-  ' 
abundance  of  ground  water  to  be  reduced  by 
pumping.  j 

When  we  hear  the  word  "reclamation"  men-  \ 
tioned  we  are  accustomed  to  consider  only  ir- 
rigation, yet,  in  a  survey  of  the  possibilities 

of  the  empire  to  be  added  eventually  to  our  ' 

farms  by  drainage — removing  surplus  water —  • 

we  see  that  irrigation,  sensational  though  it  ! 

may  be,  is  very  small  indeed  in  comparison.  I 

As  long  ago  as  1850  the  nation  began  deed- 
ing its  swamp  and  overflow  lands  to  the  various  ] 


THE    GLEANERS  91 

states,  as  we  have  already  seen.  The  thirteen 
original  states  did  not  profit  under  this  grant, 
because  at  the  formation  of  the  Union  they 
took  possession  of  all  public  lands  excepting 
only  Indian  reservations  within  their  boun- 
daries. The  states  that  came  within  the  mean- 
ing of  the  act  of  1850  were  permitted  either 
to  abide  by  the  surveys  of  government  en- 
gineers or  to  make  their  own  survey  and  file 
claims  with  proof.  Up  to  June  30,  1906,  the 
swamp  lands  had  been  distributed  as  follows: 

SWAMP   LANDS   CLAIMED   BY  THE   STATES   UP  TO   JUNE   SO,    1906 


State  Acres 

Alabama 534,190.04 

Arkansas 8,656,372.39 

California 2,066,253 .  22 

Florida 22,273,207.98 

niinois 3,981,784.10 

Indiana 1,377,727.70 

Iowa 4,572,816.27 

Louisiana al  1.216,831 .  33 

Louisiana 6785,270.00 

a  Act  of  1849.        6  Act  of  1850. 


State  Acres 

Michigan 7,293,278.93 

Minnesota 5,472,375.86 

Missi-ssippi 3,604,795 .  93 

Missouri 4,843,676.09 

Ohio 117,992.00 

Oregon 526,903.63 

Wisconsin 4,802,872.12 


Total 82,126,34^.59 


Thus  the  three  States  of  Florida,  Arkansas 
and  Louisiana  have  patented  one-half  of  the 
total  area,  while  the  remaining  area  has  been 
distributed  among  twelve  states,  although 
Illinois,  Iowa,  Indiana,  Michigan,  Minnesota, 
Wisconsin  and  Missouri  received  the  bulk. 
The  amount  of  swamp  land  still  held  by  the 
Federal  Government  is  small. 


92        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

Because  these  tracts  are  scattered  and  iso- 
lated, it  is  rather  difficult  to  obtain  a  clear 
idea  of  their  extent;  yet  the  area  is  larger 
than  that  of  the  British  Isles.  Government 
engineers  were  assigned  to  survey  and  report 
on  the  swamp  and  overflow  lands  with  the 
idea  of  determining  how  much  of  the  area 
would  be  susceptible  to  drainage.  In  their 
opinion  there  exists  to-day  an  empire  of  77,- 
000,000  acres  east  of  the  ninetj^-ninth  me- 
ridian which  can  be  reclaimed  and  fitted  for 
cultivation.  Make  a  block  of  this  area  and 
spread  it  across  the  map.  You  will  discover 
that  it  is  equal  to  the  area  of  the  three  States 
of  Illinois,  Indiana  and  Ohio.  In  the  bulletin 
"Swamp  and  Overflow  Lands  of  the  United 
States,"  J.  O.  Wright,  supervising  engineer 
of  the  drainage  and  irrigation  investigations 
in  1907,  summarized  the  economic  significance 
of  this  vast  empire  thus: 

"As  to  the  cost  of  draining  these  lands,  and 
whether  or  not  it  will  pay,  we  have  but  to 
refer  to  the  numerous  works  of  this  kind  that 
have  been  completed.  In  those  States  where 
large  areas  of  swamp  land  have  been  thor- 
oughly drained  by  open  ditches  and  tile  drains 
the  cost  ranges  from  $6  to  $20  per  acre,  while 


THE    GLEANERS  93 

in  places  where  tile  drainage  was  not  required 
the  average  cost  has  not  exceeded  $4  per  acre. 
Judging  from  the  prices  which  prevail  in  a 
large  number  of  these  districts  where  work 
of  this  kind  is  being  carried  on,  it  is  safe  to 
estimate  that  the  77,000,000  acres  of  swamp 
can  be  thoroughly  drained  and  made  fit  for 
cultivation  at  an  average  cost  of  $15  per  acre. 
The  market  value  of  these  lands  in  their  pres- 
ent shape  ranges  from  $2  to  $20  per  acre, 
depending  upon  the  location  and  prospect  of 
immediate  drainage,  with  an  average  of  prob- 
ably $8  per  acre.  Similar  lands  in  different 
sections  of  the  country  that  have  been  drained 
sell  readily  at  $60  to  $100  per  acre  at  the 
completion  of  the  work,  and  in  many  instances, 
when  situated  near  large  cities,  they  have  sold 
as  high  as  $400  per  acre.  To  determine 
whether  or  not  it  will  pay  to  drain  these  lands 
we  have  but  to  consider  the  following  figures : 

Cash  value  of  77,000,000  acres  after  thorough  drain- 
age, at  $60  per  acre $4,620,000,000 

Present  value  of  this  land  at  $8 

per  acre $616,000,000 

Cost  of  drainage  at  $15  per  acre. .  .  1,155,000,000 

Value  of  land  and  cost  of  draining 1,771,000,000 

Net  increase  in  value 2,849,000,000 

Ninety-five  per  cent,  of  the  land  ceded  by 
the  government  to  the  various  states  is  al- 
ready in  the  hands  of  farmers.    And  in  addi- 


94        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

tion  to  this  empire  of  77,000,000  acres  it  is 
estimated  that  there  is  upward  of  150,000,000 
acres  additional  land  in  the  hands  of  farmers 
which  could  be  brought  into  profitable  culti- 
vation by  the  use  of  drains. 

Too  much  water  is  as  disastrous,  unless 
remedied,  as  not  enough.  Irrigation  in  the 
humid  East  has  been  urged  as  an  insurance 
against  dry  seasons,  and  already  the  move- 
ment is  well  under  way.  During  the  past  few 
years  there  have  been  put  through  to  com- 
pletion drainage  projects  in  New  York  State 
which  aim  to  impound  the  water  which  exists 
in  superabundance  in  the  spring  for  use  as 
irrigation  in  the  dry  summer  months.  It  is 
a  fact  worthy  of  notice  that  drainage  has  be- 
come a  necessity  even  in  the  arid  regions  of 
the  Far  West,  regions  where  farming  can- 
not be  practiced  at  all  without  expensive  irri- 
gation systems.  In  the  single  State  of  Colo- 
rado upward  of  ten  per  cent,  of  the  irrigated 
area  has  been  abandoned  because  of  swamps 
formed  by  the  seepage  of  water  to  the  low- 
lands. In  the  past  it  has  been  found  more 
expensive  to  drain  these  districts  than  to  con- 
vey water  to  new  ground  for  irrigation;  but 
with  the  advancing  price  of  land  and  especially 


THE    GLEANERS  95 

the  high  capitalization  that  follows  irrigation, 
it  is  becoming  more  and  more  profitable  to  add 
drainage  as  a  necessary  adjunct  to  all  ir- 
rigation systems.  The  results  are  two-fold. 
In  the  first  place  the  surplus  water  can  be 
carried  off  and  used  to  irrigate  lands  lying 
at  a  lower  level,  and,  in  addition,  it  has  been 
found  that  drainage  prevents  the  accumula- 
tion of  alkali  at  the  surface  of  the  ground. 
This  latter  discovery  is  of  immense  economic 
importance  because  whole  countries  have  been 
rendered  sterile  by  the  accumulation  of  alkali 
due  to  the  circulation  of  the  water  of  irrigation. 

These  facts  regarding  drainage,  its  scope 
and  economic  importance,  are  specially  in- 
teresting because  we  are  still  in  the  infancy 
of  the  movement. 

Yet,  remember  that  the  little  nation  of  Hol- 
land, whose  acres  support  450  souls  to  the 
square  mile,  began  diking  and  draining  its 
empire  nearly  400  years  ago,  and  that  to-day 
nearly  two-thirds  of  Holland  lies  below  the 
sea  level.  When  we  think  of  Holland  there 
comes  before  us  a  picture  of  windmills. 
Windmills  were  pumping  water  in  Holland 
before  Christopher  Columbus  sailed  out  on  his 
voyage   of   discoverJ^      The   development   of 


96        THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

mechanical  means  of  lifting  water  out  of  sub- 
merged lands  came  when  the  native  farmers 
were  forced  beyond  the  areas  where  gravity- 
could  be  utilized  to  take  care  of  the  excess. 
The  means  first  in  use  were  the  old-fashioned 
scoop-wheels  and  the  crude  Archimedean 
screws.  In  1825  Holland  undertook  the  stu- 
pendous engineering  task  of  draining  a  dis- 
trict— the  Zuidplas  Polder — containing  over 
10,000  acres,  and  lying  twenty-two  feet  below 
the  level  of  the  River  Yssel.  It  was  indeed 
a  task  for  the  engineers  of  those  days,  but  they 
accomplished  it  by  establishing  two  batteries 
of  windmills,  driving  scoop  wheels  and  Archi- 
medean screws,  the  first  battery  of  fifteen 
windmills  lifting  the  water  half  waj'-  to  a  set- 
tling basin,  and  the  second  taking  it  up  and 
over  the  river  dike.  The  greatest  single  drain- 
age project  in  history  is  that  of  the  Haarlem 
Lake  in  Holland,  comprising  41,650  acres. 
The  lake  was  fifteen  feet  deep.  A  phalanx 
of  windmills,  their  long  arms  beating  the  air 
in  unison,  were  set  in  motion  in  1852,  but  it 
was  not  until  thirty-nine  months  later  that 
they  had  accomplished  their  task  of  scooping 
out  the  water.  On  several  occasions  later  the 
water  got  ahead  of  the  crude  motive  power 


THE    GLEANERS  97 

and  flooded  the  district,  causing  immense  loss 
to  the  farmers  who  had  crowded  the  flat  floor 
of  the  drained  area  to  plant  and  till  crops.  It 
was  finally  found  necessary  to  do  away  with 
the  picturesque  wind  mills  and  substitute 
steam  power.  To-day  the  district  once  oc- 
cupied by  the  great  lake  is  a  plain  traversed 
by  a  network  of  roads,  furnishing  homes  for 
upward  for  20,000  people.  Three  immense 
pumping  plants  of  350  horse-power  each,  with 
a  capacity  of  2,000  feet  of  water  a  minute,  hold 
back  the  tide  from  the  door-steps  of  the  thrifty 
Dutch.  England,  France,  Germany  and  Italy 
have  followed  in  the  footsteps  of  the  hard- 
pressed  Dutch,  and,  with  the  perfection  of 
mechanical  contrivances  of  the  last  hundred 
years,  they  have  solved  the  problems  of  drain- 
ing fens  and  marshes,  and  provided  volumi- 
nous literature  from  which  we  can  glean  to  ad- 
vantage. Remember,  in  this  connection,  that 
the  ultimate  area  we  will  have  drained  will  add 
a  territory  as  large  as  all  France  to  the  Stars 
and  Stripes.  In  the  work  of  reclamation  there 
are  opportunities  for  our  new  pioneers  such  as 
their  forefathers  never  dreamed  of. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  DRY  LANDS  AND  THE 
FORESTS 

So  much  for  land  with  too  much  water. 
Now  for  land  with  not  enough  water.  A 
recent  survey  of  the  arid  and  semi-arid  lands 
of  the  United  States,  conducted  by  the  fed- 
eral government,  placed  the  total  at  1,160,- 
000,000  acres.  Compare  this  with  the  total 
land  area  of  the  United  States,  1,937,000,000. 
View  this  comparison  in  the  light  of  the  knowl- 
edge that  the  prosperity  of  our  great  food 
reservoir  in  the  Middle  West  depends  on  a 
rainfall  of  not  less  than  thirty-five  inches  of 
rain  a  year. 

Arid  land  means  less  than  ten  inches  a  year. 
Semi-arid  land  means  less  than  twenty.  Our 
dominions  shrink  considerably  when  we  put 
the  foot-rule  of  available  rain-fall  on  them, 
regardless  of  whether  or  not  the  nature  of  the 
soil  and  the  topography  permit  agriculture. 

98 


DRY    LANDS    AND    FORESTS  99 

Nine  per  cent,  of  the  area  of  continental 
United  States  has  less  than  10  inches  of  rain; 
thirty  per  cent,  less  than  20  inches  and  more 
than  10  inches;  thirty-three  per  cent,  between 
20  and  40  inches,  and  twenty-seven  per  cent, 
over  forty. 

Unless  the  rains  fall  and  the  sun  shines,  all 
the  "isms"  and  "ologies"  of  agriculture,  both 
as  an  art  and  as  a  science,  go  for  naught. 
Rain,  or  the  lack  of  it,  is  the  constant  factor 
which  Jeremiah  the  Gleaner  must  keep  in 
mind  when  he  is  charting  his  empire  of  op- 
portunity. It  was  not  the  Rocky  Mountains 
that  stopped  the  westward  tide  of  immigra- 
tion. Immigration  stopped  at  the  ninety- 
ninth  meridian,  less  than  half  the  distance 
across  the  continent — and  rolled  back  on  corn- 
belt  acres,  not  because  there  was  not  land 
enough — but  because  there  was  not  water 
enough. 

Between  the  ninety-ninth  meridian  and  the 
Rocky  Mountains  there  is  a  strip  of  level 
table-land  three  hundred  miles  wide,  the  Great 
Plains — clean  enough,  smooth  enough,  rich 
enough  to  feed  the  nation  for  generations  to 
come.  Except  for  one  fact — it  hasn't  enough 
water.     It  is  water  in  the  long  run  that  will 


100      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

determine  how  much  of  the  nineteen  hundred 
milhon  acres  of  our  reahn  will  eventually  go 
under  the  plow. 

A  loaf  of  bread,  one  pound  of  bread,  costs 
two  tons  of  water  in  the  making. 

A  pound  of  beef  requires  from  fifteen  to 
twenty  tons. 

A  ton  of  hay  pumps  five  hundred  tons  of 
water  out  of  the  soil  before  it  is  ripe  for 
harvest. 

The  food  required  by  one  adult  human  be- 
ing in  one  year  represents  the  "water  duty" 
of  five  acre-feet — an  acre  of  water  five  feet 
deep — one  million  and  a  half  gallons.  This 
calculation  (Year  Book  Department  of  Agri- 
culture, 1910)  is  based  on  the  assumption  that 
one  thousand  parts  of  water  are  required  to 
produce  one  part  of  dry  matter.  Plants  drink 
their  food  in  dilute  solutions  and  exhale  the 
moisture  into  the  air  in  the  process.  The 
prosperity  of  the  Middle  West  requires  a 
thirty-five  inch  rainfall^  annually.  Was  it  a 
mere  coincidence  that  the  two  great  panics  of 
recent  years,  1873  and  1893,  followed  periods 
of  prolonged  drought  throughout  the  Middle 
West? 

An  accident  of  Nature  ages  gone  by,  a 


DRY    LANDS    AND    FORESTS         101 

gigantic  cataclysm  of  past  geologic  times 
powerful  enough  to  pile  granite  and  quartz 
three  miles  high  in  the  air,  raised  the  Rocky 
Mountains  as  a  wall  on  the  west  against  the 
passage  of  the  moisture-laden  winds  of  the 
Pacific  Ocean.  The  sudden  cooling  of  the 
humid  air  currents  which  have  drunk  their 
fill  in  their  race  over  the  waves  robs  them  of 
their  moisture  as  they  rise  high  to  ride  over 
the  range  of  hills  and  mountains.  In  southern 
California  the  razor-like  peaks  of  the  high 
Sierras  account  for  the  almost  tropical  luxuri- 
ance of  vegetation  on  the  windward  slope  of 
the  mountains  and  the  barren  desert  sand  to 
the  leeward;  yet  these  two  regions  lie  parallel 
to  each  other  and  seem  separated  by  little  more 
than  a  stone's  throw.  The  Sierras  crowd  the 
ocean  closely  on  the  south.  To  the  north, 
where  the  Cascade  Range  sets  farther  back 
from  the  tide,  a  strip  of  well-watered  fertile 
country  more  than  one  hundred  miles  wide  in 
places  extends  northward  through  California, 
Oregon  and  Washington. 

But  once  one  has  topped  the  summit  of  the 
rock-ribbed  back-bone  of  the  mountains  of  the 
Pacific  States,  a  stretch  of  nearly  fifteen  hun- 
dred miles  of  ill-nourished  land  lies  before  him 


102      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

toward  the  east.  Here  and  there  a  vagrant 
rain  cloud  finds  its  way  in  and  out  among 
mountain  passes,  to  bring  peace  and  plenty  to 
some  well-favored  valley,  and  occasional 
pockets  among  the  high  hills  are  fed  by  melt- 
ing snow  drawn  from  wide  areas. 

It  is  among  these  inter-mountain  valleys 
that  the  Gleaners  have  sought  to  impound  the 
scant  waters  that  fall  from  the  heavens  and 
make  the  land  fertile  by  irrigation.  It  is 
roughly  estimated  that  less  than  ten  per  cent, 
of  the  continent  included  in  the  geographical 
divisions  known  as  the  Far  Western  and  the 
Pacific  States  is  susceptible  to  agriculture  of 
any  type.  Not  because  of  lack  of  land,  but 
because  of  lack  of  water.  So  scant  is  the 
water  supply  that  government  engineers 
agree,  when  the  last  ditch  has  been  dug,  less 
than  fifty  million  acres  will  have  been  added 
to  the  cultivated  land  of  the  nation  by  means 
of  irrigation.  The  engineers  have  been  paring 
down  their  estimates  for  many  years.  In  the 
beginning  it  was  believed  that  over  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty-five  million  acres  could  be 
reclaimed  by  water.  In  fact,  the  land  area 
susceptible  to  irrigation  aggregates  a  total 
considerabty  greater  than  that  figure.  But  the 


DRY    LANDS    AND    FORESTS         103 

water  will  run  out  long  before  the  available 
supply  of  land  and  the  residue  is  of  question- 
able value  even  under  the  most  refined  of  dry- 
farming  methods. 

There  is  an  interesting  parallel  between  the 
land  with  too  much  water  which  we  are  re- 
claiming by  drainage  and  the  land  with  not 
enough  water  which  we  are  reclaiming  by  ir- 
rigation. The  swamps  lying  at  low  levels  are 
fertile  beyond  the  ordinary,  once  drained,  be- 
cause for  ages  they  have  drawn  on  the  allu- 
vium of  the  neighboring  prairies.  Just  so,  the 
irrigated  valleys  of  the  Far  West  are  fertile 
because  for  the  most  part  they  consist  of 
pockets  of  silt  deposited  by  the  erosion  of  cen- 
turies. And,  just  as  the  swamp  lands  we  are 
reclaiming  by  pumping  systems  need  never 
feel  the  blight  of  drought  by  judicious  man- 
agement, so  the  irrigated  lands  are  held  at 
their  maximum  degree  of  productiveness  by 
regulation  of  the  amount  of  water  turned  over 
them.  With  drained  lands  the  source  of  water 
supply  is  constant  and  independent  of  the 
heavens  through  seepage,  and  on  irrigated 
lands  the  optimum  moisture  content  is  merely 
a  matter  of  turning  on  or  off  the  gates.  In 
this  respect  alone  the  Gleaners  are  able  to 


104      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

compete  at  better  than  even  terms  with  the 
Reapers  who  have  gone  before  them. 

Both  the  federal  government  and  the  vari- 
ous states  have  spent  large  smns  in  encourag- 
ing and  establishing  irrigation  enterprises,  and, 
in  all  projects  in  which  they  have  lent  a  hand, 
it  has  been  with  the  idea  of  ultimately  mak- 
ing them  cooperative.  Yet,  in  spite  of  official 
subsidy  in  irrigation  as  in  drainage  projects, 
less  than  sixteen  per  cent,  of  the  total  four- 
teen million  acres  irrigated  in  1910  was  due 
to  federal  or  state  aid.  The  bulk,  about 
eighty-four  per  cent,  of  the  whole,  had  been 
constructed  by  individual,  cooperative  or  com- 
mercial enterprise. 

Irrigation,  then,  will  finally  add  about  fifty 
million  acres  to  the  area  of  improved  farm 
land.  This  means  another  state,  a  trifle  larger 
than  the  State  of  New  York.  Although  irri- 
gation was  the  first  phase  of  the  reclamation 
movement  to  get  under  way,  it  showed  signs  of 
lagging  about  the  time  of  the  last  census,  be- 
cause of  over-development.  "Ditch"  farming 
presents  new  and  intricate  problems  to  the 
farmers  who  elect  to  glean  by  that  method  and 
requires  intensive  methods  and  corresponding 
large  outlay  of  capital.    This  is  one  explana- 


DRY    LANDS    AND    FORESTS         105 

tion  of  the  fact  that  the  census  enumerators 
of  1910  found  nearly  six  milhon  acres  of  land 
ditched,  diked  and  graded,  and  with  water 
waiting,  still  unoccupied.  Another  explana- 
tion of  this  over-development  which  amounted 
to  nearly  thirty-three  per  cent,  of  the  whole 
lay  in  the  fact  that  a  large  hulk  of  irrigable 
land  was  in  the  hands  of  commercial  enter- 
prises, held  at  higher  rates  of  valuation  than 
the  prospective  settlers  were  able  to  command. 

Between  the  99th  and  the  104.th  meridians 
lies  the  Great  Plains  area,  comprising  nearly 
three  hundred  million  acres  of  bench  lands, 
for  the  most  part  occupying  an  altitude  too 
high  to  be  watered  artificially  even  were  there 
water  enough  for  the  purpose.  It  was  over 
this  region  that  the  last  tide  of  home-seekers 
spread  to  the  extent  of  forty  million  acres  in 
the  ten  years  ending  1910.  They  must  look 
solely  to  the  heavens  for  succor  as  must  those  in 
the  Great  Basin  lying  in  the  inter-mountain 
regions  where  irrigation  is  not  feasible. 

Broadly  speaking,  dry-farming  is  confined 
to  those  lands  which  cannot  be  profitably  irri- 
gated, which  receive  an  annual  rainfall  of  be- 
tween ten  and  twenty  inches.    However,  there 


106      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

are  so  many  factors  making  for  success  or 
failure  for  the  Gleaner  who  casts  his  lot  with 
the  settlers  of  the  semi-arid  plains  that  the 
mere  statement  of  ten  or  twenty  inches  of 
rain  means  little  in  selecting  a  homestead.  As 
we  have  already  seen,  evaporation  plays  an 
important  part,  being  less  rapid  toward  the 
north,  and  therefore  making  the  inevitable 
task  of  conserving  moisture  more  simple  for 
the  farmer  of  the  Dakotas  than  for  the  farmer 
in  Texas. 

Referring  to  this  important  factor  in  de- 
termining the  ultimate  availability  of  the  dry 
lands,  Lyman  J.  Briggs  sums  up  as  follows 
(Bulletin  188,  Bureau  of  Plant  Industry,  a 
monograph  on  dry  farming  in  relation  to  rain- 
fall and  evaporation) : 

"Dr.  H.  L.  Shantz,  of  the  Bureau  of  Plant 
Industry,  finds  that  the  distribution  of  native 
grasses  is  a  good  index  of  the  rainfall  require- 
ments in  the  different  sections  of  the  Great 
Plains.  Short  grass,  which  consists  chiefly 
of  buffalo  grass  and  grama  grass,  is  well 
suited  for  this  purpose  since  it  occurs  from 
Montana  to  Texas.  In  each  section  the  grass 
grows  as  far  west  as  the  opposing  influences 
of  rainfall  and  evaporation  will  permit.  The 
growth   of   this    short   grass   in   the    east    is 


DRY    LANDS    AND    FORESTS         107 

checked  by  competition  with  the  prairie 
grasses.  Thus  we  have  a  strip  of  short  grass 
extending  from  Montana  to  Texas  hmited  on 
the  west  by  drought  and  on  the  east  by  com- 
petition with  other  grasses.  Therefore  the  in- 
crease in  the  annual  rainfall  as  we  go  from 
north  to  south  in  the  short-grass  region  repre- 
sents the  additional  amount  of  rain  needed  to 
offset  the  increased  evaporation.  In  Montana 
short  grasses  unmixed  with  other  grasses  oc- 
cur in  districts  having  an  annual  rainfall  of 
approximately  14  inches;  in  Colorado  in 
regions  having  rainfall  of  17  inches,  and  in 
the  Panhandle  of  Texas  in  regions  having  an 
annual  rainfall  of  21  inches. 

"The  same  type  of  grass  requires  in  Texas 
7  inches  more  of  rain  a  year  than  in  Mon- 
tana. This  gives  us  at  once  a  measure  of  the 
additional  amount  of  rain  required  for  a  grain 
crop  in  Texas  as  compared  with  Montana. 
*  *  *  *  ^  rainfall  of  21  inches  in  the 
Panhandle  of  Texas  is  therefore  really  no 
better  for  growing  crops  than  15  inches  in 
Montana  or  Dakota." 

Another  and  still  more  important  factor  is 
that  of  seasonal  rainfall.  The  seasonal  dis- 
tribution of  rainfall  in  the  semi-arid  lands  is 
divided  into  three  types — the  summer  rainfall 
of  the  Great  Plains  region;  the  winter  and 


108      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

spring  rainfall  of  the  Inter-mountain  region, 
and  the  winter  rainfall  of  the  Pacific  region. 
Three-fourths  of  the  total  rainfall  in  the  Great 
Plains  region  occurs  during  the  six  months 
from  April  to  September.  On  the  Pacific 
Coast,  on  the  other  hand,  the  rainfall  occurs 
almost  entirely  during  the  winter  months,  and 
the  summers  are  dry.  In  the  Inter-mountain 
region  the  bulk  of  the  rain  falls  during  the 
late  winter  and  early  spring.  This  factor 
needs  must  affect  both  the  nature  of  the  crops 
grown  and  the  method  of  cultivation.  In  the 
Great  Basin  land  must  be  kept  under  clean 
summer  fallow  and  a  fall-sown  crop  is  then 
able  to  take  advantage  of  later  winter  and 
early  spring  rains.  ("Dry  Farming  in  Re- 
lation to  Rainfall  and  Evaporation,"  by 
Lyman  J.  Briggs,  Bulletin  188,  Bureau  of 
Plant  Industry.)  On  the  other  hand,  the 
summer  rains  of  the  Great  Plains  region  and 
the  excessive  evaporation  make  summer  fallow 
expensive,  and  the  land  is  usually  cropped 
year  in  and  year  out.  This  government,  as 
well  as  Canada,  has  recognized  the  necessity 
of  large  individual  holdings  in  these  regions 
and  both  in  our  own  West  and  on  the  western 
prairies  of  Canada  the  new  settler  is  urged 


DRY    LANDS    AND    FORESTS         109 

to  adopt  320  acres  instead  of  the  usual  160 
acres  or  quarter-section  as  his  unit. 

As  previously  stated,  less  than  twenty  per 
cent,  of  the  Great  Plains  and  Great  Basin  area 
of  our  West  will  ever  come  permanently  under 
the  plow,  and  those  farmers  who  will  persist 
and  succeed  against  the  adverse  conditions  will 
be  those  who  farm  large  areas  by  systems  re- 
quiring the  least  expenditure  of  labor.  In  the 
beginning  the  settlers  in  the  Far  West  dis- 
covered that  their  returns  did  not  depend  upon 
the  amount  of  labor  they  expended.  Once 
they  decided  on  the  nature  of  their  crops  and 
the  system  of  cultivation  their  profits  or  losses 
depended  solely  on  whether  the  season's  rain- 
fall was  above  or  below  normal. 

"The  people  of  this  region  are  not  shiftless," 
says  Mr.  E.  G.  Montgomery,  of  the  Lincoln 
(Neb.)  Experiment  Station  (Dry  Farming 
Congress,  Manhattan,  Kansas,  June  26, 1907) , 
"but  are  practical  and  optimistic  and  deserve 
some  credit  for  their  ability  to  adapt  their 
methods  of  cultivation  to  a  climate  of  this  na- 
ture and  be  able  to  succeed  as  well  as  they  do. 
The  principle  in  most  of  the  farming  seems 
to  be  to  put  as  little  expense  as  possible  into 
the  farming  of  an  acre  of  ground  on  the  theory 


110      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

that  if  it  rains  a  good  crop  will  be  produced 
and  if  it  does  not  rain  nothing  will  be  pro- 
duced under  any  conditions.  This  enables 
them  to  farm  extensively  and  to  cultivate  the 
land  at  from  one-third  to  one-half  as  much 
expense  as  in  eastern  Nebraska;  hence  if  they 
secure  a  crop  one-half  or  one-third  the  time 
it  is  produced  almost  as  cheaply  as  a  crop  in 
eastern  Nebraska.  Their  cheaper  cultivation 
is  due  partly  to  the  fact  that  the  weeds  are 
less  troublesome  and  partly  to  the  fact  owing 
to  the  drier  seasons  that  the  soil  is  kept  in 
good  tilth  much  cheaper.  However,  this 
should  not  be  too  encouraging  because  there 
are  many  disadvantages  connected  with  se- 
curing a  crop  only  once  in  every  two  or  three 
years  even  though  it  may  be  produced  as 
cheaply  as  a  crop  every  year." 

It  is  this  factor  in  the  situation  that  has 
given  rise  during  the  last  few  years  to  the 
"jumbo"  wheat  ranches  in  the  Dakotas,  where 
it  is  not  uncommon  to  find  tracts  of  five,  ten, 
or  even  twenty  thousand  acres  seeded  down 
at  one  time.  For,  just  as  we  have  seen  in 
another  phase  of  Gleaning,  draining  of 
swamps,  it  is  more  economical  to  drain  ten 
thousand  acres  at  a  time  than  one  hundred,  so 


DRY    LANDS    AND    FORESTS         111 

by  extensive  methods  wheat  fields  covering 
whole  townships  are  better  business  than  wheat 
fields  of  forty,  eighty,  or  one  hundred  and  sixty 
acres.  In  response  to  this  movement  the  Far 
West  has  produced  its  own  peculiar  type  of 
machinery.  Machines  which  "head"  the  grain 
(leaving  the  straw  standing),  thresh  it,  win- 
now it  and  pack  and  deliver  it  in  bags  at  one 
operation  in  the  field  have  come  into  general 
use  wherever  the  acreage  justifies  the  expense, 
and  gasoline  tractors  which  at  once  plow,  har- 
row, seed  and  cover  (with  electric  searchlights 
which  light  the  task  for  twenty-four  hours  a 
day  during  the  seeding  time)  are  no  longer 
curiosities  to  the  broad-gauge  farmers  of  the 
Great  Plains. 

The  soil  itself  is  intensely  fertile  and  re- 
sponds sensationally  to  favorable  seasons  of 
rainfall.  Witness,  in  1907,  spring-plowed  land 
at  the  experiment  station  at  Edgeley,  N.  D., 
produced  4  bushels  of  wheat  an  acre  with  7 
inches  of  rain  during  the  growing  season;  in 

1908,  13  bushels  with  9  inches  of  rain,  and  in 

1909,  with  11  inches  of  rain,  the  yield  was  28 
bushels.  The  elements  of  gamble  are  always 
present.  A  normal  rainfall  in  many  districts 
produces  returns  sufficient  to  make  amends  for 


112      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

several  bad  seasons  and  pay  handsomely  out 
of  balance  for  the  bounteous  season.  Five 
years  of  drought  may  depopulate  vast  town- 
ships whither  high  hopes  had  led  an  army  of 
settlers,  and  five  years  of  normal  precipita- 
tion are  just  as  apt  to  transform  the  humble 
"nester"  into  a  capitalist  far  beyond  the  dreams 
of  his  more-favored  prairie  brother.  Never- 
theless, the  capital  required  to  bridge  the  un- 
certainty of  the  heavens  tends  toward  a  more 
and  more  extensive  scale  of  cultivation. 

For  the  small  farmer  who  must  be  content 
with  random  cultivation  of  his  320  acre  home- 
stead, it  is  evident  that  something  more  ma- 
terial than  the  possibility  of  one  crop  every 
two  or  three  years  must  be  held  out  as  en- 
couragement. Rainfall  does  not  follow  the 
plow  except  in  the  poetry  of  forlorn  hope,  and 
since  there  is  no  way  of  bringing  the  optimum 
amount  of  water  to  this  otherwise  fertile  land, 
the  only  solution  of  the  problem  lies  in  the 
introduction  of  drought  -  resisting  cereals, 
grasses  and  fruits. 

The  search  for,  and  acclimatization  of 
drought-resistant  crops  has,  in  fact,  consti- 
tuted the  most  important  work  of  the  Depart- 


DRY    LANDS    AND    FORESTS  113 

ment  of  Agriculture  at  Washington  for  the 
last  several  decades.  There  is  a  Darwinism 
among  plants  as  among  animals.  The  fittest 
survive  to  form  individual  races.  Somewhere 
in  the  world  an  isolated  plant  has  lived  and 
thrived  among  the  very  adverse  conditions 
which  have  meant  death  to  millions  of  its  kind, 
and  it  is  these  isolated  few  that  are  being 
sought  continually  by  a  small  army  of  plant 
scouts  who  scour  the  world  in  their  search. 
The  interior  of  China,  Northern  Corea  and 
the  steppes  of  Siberia  present  conditions  simi- 
lar to  those  to  be  found  in  the  Great  Plains 
regions — high,  wind-swept  plateaus  and  arid 
plains. 

Upward  of  $50,000  a  year  is  now  being 
spent  on  exploration  for  crops  suited  to  the 
peculiar  conditions  of  cold  and  drought  to 
render  productive  a  vast  region  that  otherwise 
would  continue  to  produce  only  bunch  grass — 
and  that  so  sparsely  that  to  graze  one  rangey 
steer  requires  between  twenty-five  and  fifty 
acres.  Alfalfas  from  Siberia  and  Turkestan, 
the  non-saccharine  sorghums,  Kafir  corn,  stone 
fruits,  the  Chinese  jujubes,  dry-land  poplars, 
willows  and  apricots  and  date-palms  are  con- 
quering arid  acres.     Recently  the  rare  date, 


114      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

the  Deglet  Noor,  was  introduced  from  Africa 
and  planted  to  orchards  in  the  arid  deserts  of 
Arizona.  The  plant,  which  had  developed  a 
remarkable  drought-resisting  quality  in  its 
native  soil,  seemed  destined  to  failure  as  an 
American  product.  In  its  new  home  it  pro- 
duced handsome  fruit,  yet  wholly  lacking  in 
the  wonderful  flavor  to  be  found  in  the  same 
variety  in  Northern  Africa.  Specialists  of 
the  Department  of  Agriculture  set  about  to 
solve  the  difficulty  and  discovered  that  the 
flavor  of  the  Deglet  Noor  was  due  to  a  fer- 
mentation which  occurred  at  maturity.  This 
fermentation  required  a  sustained  heat  of  104 
degrees  for  several  days.  Its  native  climate 
favored  this  development.  No  so,  however, 
its  new  home.  The  difficulty  was  solved  in 
an  unique  way.  The  ripe  fruit  from  Arizona 
trees  was  picked  and  literally  "hatched"  in 
ordinary  chicken  incubators.  This  simple 
fact,  once  discovered,  has  resulted  in  thousands 
of  acres  of  otherwise  useless  land  becoming  of 
economic  importance. 

Several  years  ago  the  long-lost  manuscripts 
of  the  Austrian  monk,  Johann  Mendel,  were 
found.  The  monk  gave  his  life  to  the  culture 
of  sweet  peas  and  set  down  his  observations 


DRY    LANDS    AND    FORESTS         115 

with  the  insight  and  clarity  of  genius.  To-day 
he  is  ranked  with  de  Vries  and  Darwin,  be- 
cause of  the  new  hypothesis  he  developed.  He 
established  the  fact  that  some  of  the  characters 
of  both  plants  and  animals  are  inherited  un- 
changed, passing  down  through  each  subse- 
quent generation.  Many  of  these  dominant 
characteristics  may  be  hidden  in  the  first  gen- 
eration and  in  a  fraction  of  the  descendants 
of  each  subsequent  generation.  But  these 
dominant  characteristics  appear  in  pure  form 
in  part  of  each  generation  after  the  first,  so 
that  the  descendants  of  two  parents,  both 
showing  the  same  trait,  will  continue  to  per- 
petuate it. 

How  does  the  Mendelian  theory  apply  to 
the  extension  of  the  floor  space  of  the  Ameri- 
can farmer? 

Thus — a  bushel  of  wheat  represents  thou- 
sands of  characteristics  of  cross  breeding.  In 
one  branch  of  the  complex  ancestry  there  may 
have  been  a  strain  of  wheat  with  the  charac- 
teristic of  germinating  at  low  temperature. 
If  such  were  the  fact,  the  discovery  of  this 
characteristic  among  a  dozen  or  a  hundred 
grains  of  the  thousands  composing  the  bushel 
would  enable  botanists  to  revive  the  lost  strain. 


116      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

The  economic  importance  of  such  a  trifling 
fact  can  be  measured  by  the  thousands  of  acres 
in  the  semi-arid  West  where  a  cold  spring  pre- 
cludes wheat  from  taking  advantage  of  a  fa- 
vorable seasonal  rainfall.  A  wheat  adapted 
to  such  adverse  conditions  is  exactly  what  the 
experts  sought,  and,  having  found  by  a  simple 
process,  began  breeding.  To  find  this  strain 
they  held  the  temperature  of  mechanical  ger- 
minators  ten  or  fifteen  degrees  below  normal. 
Ordinary  wheat  would  not  germinate  at  this 
temperature.  But,  among  the  thousands  of 
grains  put  to  the  test,  possibly  ten  are  found 
to  sprout  and  grow.  These  ten,  isolated  and 
propagated,  form  the  nucleus  of  a  re-incar- 
nated race. 

The  sifting  process  can  be  carried  on  in- 
definitely by  varying  the  conditions  under 
which  the  seeds  are  sprouted  or  grown. 
Durum  wheat,  introduced  in  Kansas  by  the 
Mennonites  from  Russia,  is  merely  an  example 
of  the  process,  a  pure-blooded  strain  with 
dominant  characteristics  well  defined.  It  is 
worth  forty  million  dollars  a  j-ear  to  the  far- 
mers of  the  Great  Plains.  The  non-saccharine 
sorghums,  brought  from  China  at  a  cost  of  less 
than  $2,000,  account  for  another  forty  millions 


DRY    LANDS    AND    FORESTS         117 

of  gross  returns  in  the  same  region,  and  Kafir 
corn  produces  fifteen  million  dollars  a  year  in 
the  Far  West. 

It  is  apparent  from  a  consideration  of  the 
factors  affecting  agriculture  in  the  Far  West 
that  the  problem  is  not  merely  one  of  addi- 
tional expansion,  but  principally  to  hold  what 
ground  has  already  been  gained.  Witness  the 
retreat  of  settlers  from  thirteen  million  acres 
in  southwestern  Texas  in  the  ten  years  ending 
1910.  Even  when  the  prospective  settler  is 
in  possession  of  the  last  word  on  seasonal 
rainfall  and  temperature  and  high  winds 
(which  any  day  may  pick  up  his  summer- 
fallowed  field  and  lift  it  over  the  fence  as  a 
present  to  his  neighbor),  when  he  is  in  pos- 
session of  official  advice  as  to  what  highly  spe- 
cialized crops  to  plant  and  how  to  plant  and 
cultivate  them,  yet  he  is  still  as  much  in  the 
dark  concerning  the  capacity  of  his  own  par- 
ticular acre  of  half-section  as  an  individual 
who  seeks  to  determine  how  long  he  will  live 
by  consulting  an  actuary's  table. 

Every  influence  making  for  good  or  bad 
in  this  region  of  scant  rain  is  an  individual 
problem  to  each  acre.  The  one  rainfall  of  a 
season  may  be  so  torrential  in  its  downpour 


118      THE   FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW  j 

as  to  cause  an  excessive  run-off  before  the 
thirsty  soil  can  drink  it  up  and  hold  it.     It 
is    not    an    uncommon    experience    for    rain 
storms  to  be  so  clear  cut  in  their  path  as  to       \ 
divide  a  dusty  road  in  two  parts.    Differences       I 
in  annual  rainfall,  not  for  one  year  only,  but       | 
extending  over  twenty  years  of  observation,       '< 
are  found  to  exist  in  almost  the  same  startling 
measure  between  adjoining  townships.    Quot-       i 
ing  again  from  Bulletin  No.  188,  Bureau  of       • 
Plant  Industry:  ' 

"The  rainfall  in  the  district  around  Aber-  j 

deen,  South  Dakota,  is  nearly  5  inches  above  j 

that  of  surrounding  sections.    This  difference  i 

is  based  on  observations  of  twenty  years  or  ]_ 

more,  and  the  effect  on  crops  is  so  marked  \ 

that  the  farmers  generally  recognize  that  good  j 
crops  may  be  found  in  this  section  when  the 

surrounding     regions     are     suffering     from  ! 

drought.  It  is  important  then  to  have  as  many  i 
rainfall   stations  as  possible  to  measure  ac- 
curately the  annual  precipitation." 

i 

Upward  of  sixty  million  acres  are  under 
cultivation  by  dry-farming  methods  in  the 
Great  Plains  and  Great  Basin  regions,  and  it 
is  the  opinion  of  those  who  have  given  their 
lives  to  the  solution  of  the  problem  of  more 


DRY    LANDS    AND    FORESTS         119 

cheap  land  that  this  acreage  will  never  be  ma- 
terially increased.  In  fact,  many  believe  that 
the  western  fringe  of  the  dry-farming  region 
is  destined  to  revert  to  grazing.  The  systems 
of  cultivation  under  which  the  region  is  now 
being  exploited  do  not  make  for  the  conserva- 
tion of  soil  fertility.  Conservation  of  moisture 
is  the  main  problem.  As  we  shall  see  in  sub- 
sequent chapters,  single-cropping  and  ex- 
tensive agriculture  go  hand  in  hand,  and  ex- 
perience has  shown  that  our  prairies  toward 
the  east,  stuffed  with  decaying  mold  of  hun- 
dreds and  hundreds  of  years  of  prairie  grasses, 
were  broken  down  in  a  generation  of  such  ex- 
ploitation. The  immediate  problem  of  raising 
crops  is  so  pressing  that  we  have  not  yet  given 
heed  to  the  ultimate  fate  of  these  lands  under 
the  systems  which  are  found  most  profitable 
for  the  day. 

At  one  time,  geologists  tell  us,  the  Great 
Plains  were  well  watered  and  wooded.  Only 
recently  remains  of  prehistoric  cities  have  been 
uncovered  in  western  Kansas.  A  great  need 
of  the  present  day  is  windbreaks  of  trees  to 
prevent  the  blowing  of  soils,  a  factor  which  is 
extremely  serious  in  many  sections,  and  plant 
scouts  are  seeking  dry-land  trees.     An  ex- 


120      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

periment  station  has  been  established  at  Man- 
dan,  North  Dakota,  to  try  out  the  imported 
varieties,  that  the  Great  Plains  may  again  be 
wooded.  What  became  of  the  forests  that 
once  covered  the  region  is  one  of  the  baffling 
mysteries  which  scientists  have  not  solved. 

As  to  the  former  fertility  of  the  bench 
lands,  it  is  at  least  partially  explained  by  the 
fact  that  at  one  time  the  waters  of  the  present 
Gulf  of  Mexico  extended  as  far  north  as  the 
confluence  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  Missouri 
Rivers;  the  land  of  cotton  extending  south  of 
this  point  at  the  present  time  having  been 
built  by  deposits  of  alluvium  during  subse- 
quent periods.  An  upheaval,  resulting  in  the 
formation  of  plateaus  and  mountains  in  the 
Southwest,  causes  the  moisture-laden  winds  of 
the  Gulf  at  the  present  day  to  veer  to  the 
north;  otherwise  the  Great  Plains  would  to- 
day be  a  land  of  rain  and  the  fertile  bottoms 
of  the  Mississippi  River  valley  would  be  strug- 
gling with  the  problems  of  dry-land  agri- 
culture. 

Soil  fertility  depends  not  only  on  the  min- 
eral elements  in  the  soil,  but  equally  upon 
complex  organic  compounds,  the  result  of  de- 
caying vegetable  matter.     The  reserve  fer- 


DRY    LANDS    AND    FORESTS         121 

tility  of  the  Great  Plains  regions  with  suf- 
ficient water  undoubtedly  dates  back  to  its 
early  history.  How  long  an  exploitive  sys- 
tem of  farming,  where  fallow  is  the  only  "fer- 
tilizer" and  the  only  organic  matter  returned 
to  the  soil  is  the  dry  stalks  of  grain,  can  re- 
main on  its  own  feet  is  a  question  another  gen- 
eration will  have  to  answer.  At  the  present 
time  it  seems  that  a  sufficiency  of  water  alone 
can  solve  the  problem.  The  Chinese,  who  have 
been  farming  for  more  than  forty  centuries, 
and  are  many  hundred  years  ahead  of  the  rest 
of  the  world  in  efficiency,  solve  the  problem 
of  water  by  turning  back  their  rivers  from  the 
sea  by  means  of  lateral  canals.  Their  acres 
are  forced  to  grow  not  one,  but  several  crops 
each  year;  and  what  a  western  nation  would 
consider  a  sufficiency  of  water  is  inadequate 
in  China.  It  is  for  this  reason  principally,  and 
to  provide  transportation  incidentally,  that 
conservation  has  reached  a  point  in  China 
where  every  gallon  of  river  water  that  escapes 
to  the  sea  is  considered  just  so  much  potential 
fertility  lost. 

Is  it  not  possible  then,  conceivable  at  least 
as  a  dream  of  the  distant  future,  that  the 
United  States  will  some  day  arrive  at  a  point 


122      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

where  it  will  become  a  public  function  to  divert 
the  excessive  rainfall  of  the  East  to  the  arid 
regions  of  the  West  by  means  of  grand  trans- 
continental canals?  The  surplus  water  of  the 
77,000,000  acres  of  swamp  alone  would  be  suf- 
ficient to  restore  an  equal  area  in  the  Great 
Plains  to  its  prehistoric  fertility.  And  the 
waters  of  the  Mississippi  River  floods,  which 
to-day  serve  no  purpose,  would,  properly  di- 
verted by  an  engineering  work  not  thought 
possible  at  the  present  day,  bring  peace  and 
plenty  to  an  empire  in  the  Far  West  as  big 
as  France. 

To  straighten  out  the  tortuous  path  of  the 
great  Mississippi,  and  confine  the  riotous 
spring  flood  within  the  walls  of  a  great  air-line 
canal,  is  already  being  considered  as  a  possible 
and  highly  desirable  undertaking  by  engineers. 
To  impound  the  surplus  water  and  convey  it 
on  a  trans-continental  journey,  raising  it  stage 
by  stage  by  means  of  pumps  (part  of  whose 
power  is  furnished  by  the  same  water  falling 
in  other  stages  of  the  same  canal),  is  no 
greater  undertaking  than  the  Panama  Canal. 
Take  the  map  and  draw  a  line  along  the 
coastal  plain  from  the  swamp  regions  of 
northern  Louisiana  (where  the  black  alluvium 


DRY   LANDS    AND    FORESTS         123 

is  rendered  sterile  by  sliallow  lakes  for  many 
months  every  year)  westward  to  the  arid 
Southwest — to  Texas,  where  thirteen  million 
acres  of  parched  soil  reverted  to  bunch  grass  in 
ten  years  because  of  not  enough  water.  It 
is  not  taxing  the  imagination  too  far  to  assume 
than  another  billion  dollars  worth  of  pro- 
ductive land  could  be  added  to  the  wealth  of 
the  nation — and  the  Panama  Canal  cost  less 
than  one-half  that  amount.  It  is  a  crying 
need  of  both  the  swamp  and  overflow  regions 
of  the  South  and  the  semi-arid  region  of  the 
West,  and  such  an  undertaking  at  least  de- 
serves a  survey  of  its  possibilities.  Dry  land 
with  enough  water  at  hand  for  irrigating  pur- 
poses frequently  touches  a  valuation  of  over 
$2,000  in  the  arid  West.  Wet  land,  with 
too  much  water,  in  the  southern  states 
touches  $10  in  normal  seasons  and  is 
valueless  for  the  crops  suited  to  its  pe- 
culiar climate  when  the  super-abundant  rain- 
fall exceeds  normal.  Some  day,  surely,  we 
must  come  to  learn  the  story  of  conservation 
of  water,  which  the  Chinese  have  practiced  for 

thousands  of  years. 

He  *  *  *  * 

Vast  as  is  this  expanse  of  land  of  little  rain 


124      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

lying  west  of  the  ninety-ninth  meridian,  it  is 
the  opinion  of  Dr.  Cyril  G.  Hopkins,  of  Il- 
linois, and  other  close  students  of  agricultural 
economics  that  the  United  States  of  the  future 
will  have  to  look  to  the  "rain-belt"  as  its 
main  food  reservoir.  Irrigation  in  the  arid 
West  to-day  accounts  for  less  than  one-half 
of  one  per  cent,  of  the  continental  area,  and 
dry-farming,  as  we  have  said,  has  arrived  at 
a  point  of  expansion  where  the  problem  is 
more  one  of  holding  its  own  than  of  further 
expansion. 

The  tendency  toward  concentration  of  pro- 
duction in  the  Middle  West  was  already  be- 
coming strongly  marked  at  the  close  of  the 
first  decade  of  the  new  century. 

In  the  census  year  of  1910  it  was  ascer- 
tained that  fifty-six  per  cent,  of  all  crops 
grown  was  produced  in  the  Middle  West.  The 
East,  including  New  England  and  the  Middle 
Atlantic  States,  furnished  but  a  fraction  over 
seven  per  cent.  The  Mountain  and  Pacific 
States,  many  times  more  vast  in  area,  pro- 
duced 6.2  per  cent.,  and  the  South,  30.6  per 
cent.  Remember  in  this  connection  that  one- 
fifth  of  all  the  land  cultivated  south  of  the 
Mason  and  Dixon  line  is  cotton,  and  that  in 


'  DRY    LANDS    AND    FORESTS  125 

the  four  states  of  Georgia,  Alabama,  Mis- 
sissippi and  Texas,  over  seventy  per  cent,  of 
the  farming  produced  cotton — not  food,  but 
clothing. 

Examining  the  production  of  food  in  these 
grand  geographical  divisions  in  another  way, 
let  us  take  the  cereals,  which  occupy  forty- 
eight  per  cent,  of  all  plowed  land  in  the  United 
States.  The  acreage  in  cereals  increased  only 
3.5  per  cent,  in  ten  years  and  the  per  capita 
production  fell  from  58.4  bushels  to  49.1 
bushels.  Is  there  any  reason  for  wonder,  with 
a  population  increasing  21  per  cent.,  that  the 
cereal  crop  of  1909  was  worth  79.8  per  cent, 
more  in  dollars  and  cents  than  the  same  crop 
in  1899?  Such  an  increase  in  money  returns 
offered  every  inducement  to  the  farmer  to  in- 
crease production. 

What  share  of  production  does  the  Middle 
West,  the  "rain-belt,"  claim  to-day?  Of  the 
1909  crop  the  Middle  West  produced  65.8  per 
cent. — practically  two-thirds.  The  East  fur- 
nished 4.1;  the  South,  25.3,  and  the  Far 
West,  6.2. 

The  term  "rain-belt"  and  the  reservoir  of 
food  surplus  then  become  practically  synon- 
ymous.   The  problem  of  rain  is  not  vital  east 


126      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

of  the  Alleghanies,  yet  we  can  dismiss  this 
area  as  of  national  importance  because  it 
feeds  only  one  mouth  in  every  fourteen.  The 
South  is  devoted  to  cotton,  and  its  corn,  its 
next  most  important  crop,  is  not  sufficient  to 
feed  the  mules  that  cultivate  the  cotton.  The 
Mountain  and  Pacific  States,  though  occupy- 
ing an  area  equal  to  one-half  the  country, 
rank  in  economic  importance  with  New  Eng- 
land and  the  Middle  Atlantic  States.  Thus 
the  farm  area  producing  a  surplus  of  food 
is  narrowed  down  to  a  region  occupying,  so 
to  speak,  the  solar-plexus  of  the  map.  It  in- 
cludes the  states  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Michigan, 
Illinois,  Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  Iowa  and  Mis- 
souri, and  the  eastern  half  of  Oklahoma, 
Kansas,  Nebraska  and  the  Dakotas.  It  was 
in  this  region  that  settlers,  under  the  Home- 
stead Act,  found  permanent  homes,  because 
of  the  natural  advantages  of  soil  and  climate. 
Every  available  acre,  susceptible  to  production 
under  the  sunshine-and-rain  rate  of  cultivation, 
was  actually  producing  food  in  1910,  and  it 
is  in  this  "solar-plexus"  of  the  map  that  we 
find  farms  most  highly  capitalized  on  the 
principle  that  man  is  first  and  foremost  a  con- 
server  of  his  own  labor  and  chooses  that  land 


DRY    LANDS    AND    FORESTS  12T 

which  yields  the  best  returns  for  the  least 
amount  of  labor. 

It  seems  almost  an  anomaly  then  to  find 
opportunities  for  the  Gleaner  in  this  district. 
We  have  already  seen  that  an  area  of  77,000,- 
000  acres  of  swamp  and  overflow  lands  awaits 
the  Gleaner,  and  that  a  goodly  percentage  of 
this  empire  of  potential  fertility  lies  in  the 
corn-belt.  We  have  also  seen  that  north  of 
the  forty-fifth  parallel  of  latitude  in  the  three 
states  of  Michigan,  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota 
the  elemental  industr}'^  has  been  not  agri- 
culture, but  lumbering. 

It  was  not  in  the  scheme  of  things  as  we 
conceived  it  as  a  nation  in  the  beginning  that 
this  area  should  remain  permanently  in  for- 
ests. Forty  million  acres  in  this  region  has 
passed  into  private  hands  and  has  been  reaped 
of  Nature's  first  crop.  The  lumber- jack,  fire 
and  the  ax  have  laid  the  vast  area  bare,  with 
no  thought  of  reforestation.  Because  forestry, 
hke  agriculture,  must  be  endowed  with  its 
plant  in  the  beginning  and  cannot  persist  in 
the  end  except  as  a  commercial  possibility. 
When  the  product  of  an  ^cre  of  forest  is  worth 
only  $15  and  the  cost  of  reforesting  that  same 
acre  is  in  excess  of  $15,  the  lumber  barons 


128      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

give  no  heed  of  the  morrow.  As  a  nation  we 
have  recently  sequestered  some  200,000,000 
acres  of  forests  in  the  Far  West  and  Alaska 
for  the  future,  but  the  fringe  of  hard  wood 
forests  that  borders  the  corn-belt  on  the  north 
must  look  for  its  future  prosperity  to  agri- 
culture. 

It  is  in  this  region  that  we  have  already 
seen  four  million  acres  reclaimed  from  its  for- 
est cover  in  the  ten  years  ending  1910. 

Wisconsin  alone  offers  ten  million  acres  for 
the  settler  hardy  enough  to  expend  from  $15 
to  $50  in  labor,  in  addition  to  the  price  of 
the  land  (which  he  must  buy),  in  subduing 
an  acre  for  the  plow.  Here  in  these  three 
states  is  the  original  task  of  the  early  English 
in  New  England,  started  all  over  again.  With 
this  difference :  once  the  forest  cover  is  cleared 
the  pioneer  finds  awaiting  the  plow  not  the 
sour,  stony  hillsides  of  the  East  which  so  set 
their  imprint  on  the  characters  of  our  early  an- 
cestors; but,  instead,  mellow  loess,  identical  in 
geological  origin  with  the  rich  loam  of  the 
treeless  prairies  further  south — ^level,  deep,  and 
rich  in  fertility. 

And,  in  addition,  the  pioneer  in  these  regions 
finds  another  factor  in  his  favor.    The  region 


DRY    LANDS    AND    FORESTS         129 

is  not  a  frontier.  Forestry  and  mining  have 
preceded  the  tiller  of  the  soil;  built  railroads, 
huge  lake  terminals,  of  which  one  (Duluth)  is 
second  only  to  New  York  City  in  the  total 
tonnage  handled,  school  houses,  good  roads, 
churches,  manufacturing  towns  and  cities,  and, 
what  is  of  still  greater  economic  significance,  a 
hungry  population  of  25,000,000  people  is 
within  twenty-four  hours  by  rail  or  steamer. 
On  the  north  the  Great  Lakes  equalize  the 
temperature  to  such  an  extent  that  the  shores 
of  Superior  produce  in  profusion  all  of  the 
tender  fruits  and  vegetables  to  be  found  in 
the  corn-belt.  The  State  of  Wisconsin  has 
for  many  years  been  considered  foremost  from 
the  viewpoint  of  collective  effort  in  advancing 
its  agriculture,  yet,  after  all,  until  to-day  agri- 
culture in  Wisconsin  has  occupied  only  a  small 
strip  toward  the  south.  To-day  the  State  has 
organized  its  immigration  commission  —  as 
have  Minnesota  and  Michigan — and  is  seeking 
to  attract  settlers  by  a  careful  survey  of  the 
opportunities  that  lie  north  of  the  forty-fifth 
parallel.  The  main  point  that  favors  its  rapid 
development  is  that  transportation  and  mar- 
kets are  already  at  the  very  door,  and,  with 
these  factors  at  hand,  who  will  say  that  the  big 


130      THE  FARMER   OF  TO-MORROW 

woods  acre,  cleared  of  its  stumps  and  mel- 
lowed for  agriculture,  camiot  compete  on  an 
even  basis  with  the  $200  corn  belt  acre.  Here 
we  find  raw  land  as  a  means  of  labor  in  which 
every  unit  of  effort  expended  to  put  it  under 
cultivation  manufactures  capital  for  the 
pioneer. 

The  State  of  Wisconsin  advises  its  settlers 
that  forty  acres,  properly  cleared  and  culti- 
vated, is  sufficient  for  a  family.  The  land  is 
to  be  had  at  prices  ranging  from  $5  to  $20 
an  acre,  and  in  many  districts  so  wasteful  have 
been  the  lumbering  systems  practiced  that 
cord  wood  cut  from  a  pioneer's  forty-acre  tract 
will  repay  him  for  the  cost  of  the  land  and  pay 
him  wages  in  addition.  Pulp  mills  and  brass 
furnaces  stand  ready  with  a  market  for  cord 
wood  and  pulp  and  the  expanding  railroad 
industry  furnishes  a  never-ending  market  for 
ties. 

It  is  not  all  prime.  Streaks  of  sand  stretch 
across  the  three  states  like  bars  on  a  flag  and 
here  and  there  the  white  heat  of  fire  has  taken 
the  life  out  of  the  land,  to  be  restored  only  by 
infinite  pains,  time  and  expense.  It  is  for 
this  reason  that  the  three  states  comprising 
the  hard-wood  belt  seek  to  advise  the  pro- 


DRY    LANDS    AND    FORESTS  131 

spective   settlers   that  they   may   not  be  led 
astray  by  specious  promises. 

In  this  phase  of  Gleaning,  as  with  drainage 
and  the  reclamation  of  arid  and  semi-arid 
lands,  cooperation  is  effecting  the  most  eco- 
nomical results.  Just  as  drainage  projects 
call  for  engineering  feats  never  before  con- 
templated and  as  the  exploitive  farming  of 
the  Great  Plains  regions  gives  birth  to  new 
machinery,  so  here  in  the  big  woods  area  we 
find  peculiar  means  and  methods.  Most 
primitive  of  these  is  sheep  grazing  in  the  rich 
stump  pastures,  paying  returns  on  the  land 
over  the  period  required  to  rot  out  the  deep- 
rooting  stumps.  With  the  active  exploitation 
of  this  district,  however,  has  come  its  own  pe- 
culiar machinery,  notable  among  which  is  the 
power  stump-puller,  which  operates  on  the 
stumps  as  a  dentist  is  advertised  to  extract 
teeth — easily  and  painlessly.  Dynamite  and 
giant-powder  are  used  as  well,  and  where 
cooperation  is  the  rule  whole  townships  are 
being  rapidlj?^  stripped  and  mellowed.  Just 
as  the  prairies  are  rich  with  the  countless  gen- 
erations of  molding  grasses,  so  here  the  stiff 
clays  have  been  mellowed  for  ages  on  ages 
by  decaying  leaves  and  such  a  range  of  crops 


132      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

as  tobacco,  melons,  small  fruits  and  vegetables 
for  canning,  and  clover,  alfalfa,  sugar  beets 
and  the  cereals  respond  readily  to  cultivation. 

The  big  woods  of  the  North  in  the  corn-belt 
region  are  detailed  here  merely  because  they 
represent  in  a  mass  the  opportunities  of  the 
Gleaner  who  is  electing  this  means  of  provid- 
ing himself  with  a  plant  for  producing  food. 
The  South  counts  upward  of  30,000,000  acres 
of  cut-over  forests  that  can  be  cleared  and 
worked  profitably  as  farms.  The  South  has 
been  backward  in  its  drainage  projects.  One 
does  not  have  to  go  back  of  statistics  of  malaria 
to  ascertain  that.  Also,  the  South  has  been 
backward  in  clearing,  yet  the  opportunities  it 
presents  to  the  Gleaner  are  no  less  rosy.  In 
the  long  run  it  is  the  price  of  improved  land 
that  must  determine  the  speed  with  which  we 
set  about  conquering  waste  land.  So  long 
as  it  is  cheaper  to  buy  prime  land  than  to 
glean  among  waste  acres,  the  movement  will 
proceed  slowly,  and  in  this  regard  each  town- 
ship, each  county,  will  measure  its  own 
conditions. 

By  far  the  most  peculiar  phase  of  the  move- 
ment of  reclamation  is  the  tide  of  immigration 
that  has  set  in  out  of  the  West  to  the  so- 


DRY    LANDS    AND    FORESTS         133 

called  abandoned  areas  of  the  East.  East  of 
the  Alleghanies  one-third  of  the  population  is 
compressed  within  one-tenth  of  the  area  of  the 
country.  Nearly  eighty  per  cent,  of  this  pop- 
ulation is  engaged  in  manufacturing,  is  cen- 
tered in  cities — consumers  of  food,  not  pro- 
ducers. When  the  rush  of  homestead  settlers 
started  west  in  the  middle  of  the  last  century 
it  drew  a  vacuum  in  its  wake.  The  undreamed- 
of fertility  of  the  great  prairies  made  the 
clearing  of  the  bleak,  inhospitable  hills  of  New 
England  seem  like  some  bitter  tragedy.  Much 
land  that  never  should  have  been  reclaimed 
from  its  forest  cover  was  permitted  to  revert 
to  second  growth  timber,  and  also  much  land 
that  had  proved  fertile — rich  river  bottom 
meadows,  sunny  slopes,  and  rolling  pastures 
that  lay  like  saddle-blankets  across  the  shoul- 
ders of  the  hills — were  abandoned  either  to 
their  original  forest  cover  or  to  shiftless,  inter- 
bred natives  without  ambition  either  to  follow 
their  brothers  west  or  to  preserve  the  fertile 
land  from  the  inroads  of  hard-hack  and  alders. 
Transportation  and  the  proximity  of  markets 
are  tremendous  factors  in  these  days  when 
half  the  population  is  enumerated  as  non- 
producers,  dwellers  in  cities,  and  it  is  for  this 


134      THE  FARMER   OF  TO-MORROW 

reason  that  the  abandoned  areas  of  the  East 
have  suddenly  come  into  economic  importance 
in  the  last  ten  years.  Only  the  tremendous 
stress  of  the  westward  movement  of  the  last 
fifty  years  can  account  for  the  gross  in- 
equalities in  the  prices  at  which  acres  of  the 
East  and  acres  of  the  West  find  purchasers. 
Two  hundred  dollar  land,  whose  products  re- 
quire a  thousand  mile  haul  to  be  brought  to 
the  door  of  the  consumer,  is  not  a  rarity  in 
the  Middle  West.  Just  so,  twenty-five  dollar 
land,  with  markets  at  its  front  gate,  is  not  a 
rarity  in  the  East.  Such  a  lack  of  balance  can 
only  be  explained  as  a  peculiar  feature  of 
the  period  of  transition  in  a  rapidly  develop- 
ing industry.  It  is  probable  that  the  greater 
share  of  this  region  east  of  the  Alleghanies  will 
be  devoted  to  growing  fruits  and  vegetables 
for  the  city  markets.  It  is  here  that  we  find 
the  better  class  of  the  recent  emigration  from 
southern  Europe,  seeking  to  reestablish 
themselves  in  their  long- forgotten  estate  of 
land  owners.  Italians,  Poles,  natives  of  the 
Balkans,  people  who  have  known  land  for 
centuries  only  as  a  privileged  possession  de- 
nied to  them  and  valued  to  its  last  square 
meter  at  the  mountain  tops,  find  nothing  to 


DRY    LANDS    AND    FORESTS  135 

daunt  them  in  the  forbidding  aspect  of  a  New 
England  rock-ribbed  hillside,  especially  when 
they  can  possess  it  for  a  few  dollars.  At  home 
the  people  of  southern  Europe  are  familiar 
with  soil  being  built  on  bare  rocks,  carried  in 
baskets  on  the  backs  of  groaning  peasants. 
Such  made  land  is  common  even  in  the  rich 
Rhine  country.  Gleaning  has  been  the  por- 
tion for  centuries  of  these  people,  and  the 
frugality  and  thrift,  indeed  the  very  low 
standard  of  living  we  profess  to  despise  in 
them,  combine  to  adapt  them  admirably  for 
the  opportunities  they  find  on  every  hand  in 
this  country. 

One  in  every  three  of  the  ten  million 
emigrants  from  southern  Europe  who  entered 
our  gates  in  the  decade  ending  1910  returned 
home  with  his  savings.  In  order  to  accom- 
plish this  ambition  they  lowered  even  their 
own  low  standard  of  living.  They  were  un- 
desirable aliens  in  the  ultimate  extension  of 
the  term,  and  not  to  be  compared  with  their 
sturdy,  hard-headed  brothers,  who  are  willing 
to  sacrifice  all  for  the  possession  of  an  acre 
of  productive  land.  It  is  this  desire  to  own 
land  that  marks  what  we  like  to  call  the  Ameri- 
can Spirit,  and,  in  the  end,  must  be  the  factor 


136      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

which  Avill  unify  the  American  race.  It  is 
not  only  the  people  of  Southern  Europe  who 
are  finding  opportunity  here  now  in  this  age 
of  Gleaning.  The  hard-wood  forests  of  Wis- 
consin, JNIichigan  and  Minnesota  are  being 
cleared  by  Scandinavians  and  the  Swiss, 
people  who  have  been  imbued  with  the  bitter 
lessons  of  centuries  in  establishing  agriculture 
in  their  native,  ill-favored  homes.  The  history 
of  the  communistic  settlement  of  America  has 
never  been  written.  There  are  Icelandic 
colonies  in  North  Dakota,  Mennonites  in 
Kansas,  Dunkards  in  Saskatchewan,  Japanese, 
Portuguese  and  Slavs  in  the  Pacific  States, 
and  only  now  an  army  of  ten  thousand  stal- 
wart, bearded  sons  of  Holland  with  their 
families  are  taking  up  homes  on  the  border  of 
the  Great  Plains.  These  and  many  others, 
in  addition  to  the  classic  examples  of  the  early 
Puritans  in  Massachusetts,  Swedes  in  Del- 
aware, Quakers  in  Pennsylvania,  and  Mor- 
mons in  Utah.  The  early  groups  sought  only 
communistic  isolation.  Witness  the  Mormons 
as  late  as  1846  electing  to  build  an  empire 
in  the  midst  of  a  desert.  But  the  later 
groups  are  inspired  only  by  the  vision  of  the 
possession  of  an  acre  of  land  and  an  escape 


DRY    LANDS    AND    FORESTS         137 

from  the  intolerable  conditions  of  crowded 
Europe. 

We  have  enumerated  the  various  phases  of 
gleaning  that  are  under  way,  and,  in  the 
enumeration,  have  shown  how  each  phase  is, 
in  the  main,  sectional.  However,  this  is  true 
only  in  a  broad  way.  There  is  no  county,  no 
township  in  the  length  and  breadth  of  the 
country  that  does  not  present  examples  of  one 
or  more  of  these  various  phases.  Drainage 
and  clearing  are  common  to  all  sections,  and 
the  specialization  of  crops  as  well.  Even  irri- 
gation and  the  best  practices  of  dry-farming 
are  traveling  east.  New  Jersey  has  come  to 
realize  in  the  last  few  years  that  its  acres  cannot 
attain  their  maximum  efficiency  without  irriga- 
tion, and  the  same  is  true  of  many  other  sec- 
tions of  the  humid  East.  Sunshine  and  rain 
are  the  fundamental  requisites  of  agriculture. 
A  soil  as  fertile  as  the  arid  plains  is  sterile 
because  of  lack  of  water,  and  the  best  type  of 
farming  must  always  consider  first  the  con- 
servation of  moisture  and  the  elimination  of 
surplus  water. 

Having  considered  the  reclamation  move- 
ment, we  are  now  in  a  position  to  recapitulate 
and  determine  approximately  the  ultimate  do- 


138      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

main — the  floor  space  of  the  American  farmer 
— the  land  actually  under  cultivation  and  pro- 
ducing food  and  clothing. 

We  have  seen  that  to-day  310,000,000  acres 
are  being  plowed.  To  this  we  can  add  77,000,- 
000  acres  to  be  drained,  100,000,000  acres  to 
be  cleared  of  brush  and  stones,  35,000,000 
acres  to  be  added  by  additional  irrigation  en- 
terprises in  the  West,  and  lastly,  150,000,000 
acres  now  nominally  in  farms,  but  producing 
nothing  but  scant  pasturage  because  of  lack 
of  drainage,  grading,  or  clearing.  That  gives 
us  a  grand  total  of  672,000,000  acres. 

It  is  interesting  to  note,  in  conclusion,  how 
this  estimate  of  672,000,000  acres  of  improved 
land  in  the  United  States  compares  propor- 
tionally with  European  countries  which  have 
long  since  passed  through  the  period  of  rec- 
lamation, with  a  single  exception  of  Russia. 

The  table  on  the  following  page  shows  the 
comparison  at  a  glance. 

In  addition  to  the  land  actually  under  the 
plow,  there  must  always  exist  as  an  adjunct 
to  any  system  of  agriculture  a  considerable 
area  devoted  to  grazing  and  wood-lots.  The 
bulk  of  the  Great  Plains  region,  unsuited  to 
any  form  of  farming  feasible  in  the  present 


DRY  LANDS  AND  FORESTS 


139 


PERCENTAGE  AND  AREA  OF  ARABLE  LAND 
BY  COUNTRIES 


Country 


Acres 


Per  Cent. 

of  total 

land  area 


United  States. 


672,000,000 


Austria 

Hungary 

Belgium 

Bulgaria. 

Denmark 

France 

Germany 

Greece 

Italy 

Netherlands .... 

Norway 

Portugal 

Roumania 

Russia  (Europe). 

Servia 

Spain 

Sweden 

Switzerland 

United  Kingdom . 


26,145. 

34,027. 
4,578. 
7,352, 
6,402, 

62,726. 

63,090, 


000 
000 
000 
000 
000 
000 
000 


25,056, 
2,126, 
1,019, 


000 
000 
000 


12,602, 

328,389, 

2,999, 


000 
000 
000 


1,681 
18,712 


,000 
.000 
,000 


36  (est.) 

35.3 
42.4 
62.9 
31.1 

68.1 
48.0 
47.7 
14.0 
37.4 
27.5 

1.3 
22.4 
38.8 
25.7 
25.1 
35.4 

8.7 
17.0 
24.1 


day,  will  always  be  valuable  as  a  range  for 
the  rough  production  of  sheep  and  cattle  to 
be  "finished"  in  the  feed  lots  of  the  East.  The 
present  area  of  875,000,000  acres  nominally 
in  farms  includes  a  great  deal  of  this  range 
country,  as  well  as  stubborn  fields  which  never 
can  be  subdued  for  the  plow,  but  will  always 
be  of  importance  as  an  ad j unct  to  our  farming. 


140      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

Even  under  the  liberal  census  enumeration  of 
improved  acres  to-day,  only  one-half  of  the 
land  nominally  in  farms  is  being  cropped. 
How  great  this  proportion  will  be  eventually 
can,  at  the  present  day,  be  only  approximated. 
Rough  pasture  and  wood  lots  probably  will 
eventually  represent  500,000,000  acres.  By 
this  rough  estimate  then  the  ultimate  domain 
of  the  American  Farmer  will  slightly  exceed 
one  billion  acres,  or  fifty  per  cent,  of  the  land 
and  water  area  of  the  country. 


CHAPTER   V 

THE  DIVISION  OF  SOILS  AND  THE 
SPECIALIZATION  OF  CROPS 

Side  by  side  with  reclamation  of  waste  land 
we  have  the  task  of  increasing  the  efficiency 
of  the  individual  acre.  There  is  no  ethics  con- 
cerned with  the  movement.  It  is  wholly  com- 
mercial. The  world  must  be  fed,  yet  the  only 
means  the  world  at  large  has  of  enforcing  its 
demands  for  food  lies  in  dollars  and  cents. 
The  more  hungry,  the  greater  the  price  of 
food,  the  greater  the  inducement  to  the  farmer 
to  clear  waste  land  for  cultivation  or  to  in- 
crease the  efficiency  of  the  land  he  already 
cultivates.  Expediency  resolves  the  equation 
in  the  end. 

The  success  of  huge  industrial  combinations 
depends  primarily  upon  their  ability  to  control 
production,  to  attune  their  output  to  the  pop- 
ular demand.  Nearlj^  seven  million  farmers 
are  engaged  in  producing  food  in  the  United 

141 


142      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

States  and  their  output  is  controlled  by  many- 
complex  factors,  among  the  principal  of  which 
are  soil,  climate,  and  individual  efficiency.  So 
closely  must  famine  follow  on  the  heels  of 
the  last  harvest  to  make  the  business  of  farm- 
ing profitable,  that  the  slightest  variation  of 
any  one  of  the  many  factors  influencing  pro- 
duction in  a  broad  way  means  success  or  fail- 
ure for  the  individuals.  Take  a  recent  in- 
stance in  the  production  of  corn,  our  biggest 
crop.     A  widespread  drought  in  the  fall  of 

1911  reduced  the  acreage  production  from  27 
bushels  to  24  bushels.  The  price  of  corn 
soared  to  62  cents.  In  the  following  year  the 
heavens  smiled  on  the  land.  An  acre  of  corn 
measured  over  29  bushels.  Did  this  spell  pros- 
perity for  the  farmer  over  his  returns  of  the 
year  before?  In  the  light  of  the  "two  blades 
of  grass"  theory  it  should  have  spelled  pros- 
perity. But  it  did  not.  The  farmer  was 
forced  to  accept  48  cents  for  the  same  bushel 
that  had  brought  him  14  cents  more  a  year 
gone  by.     Actually  the  American  farmer  in 

1912  was  forced  to  suifer  a  loss  of  $40,000,000 
over  1911  as  a  penalty  for  harvesting  an  ex- 
cess of  600,000,000  bushels  of  corn. 

The  business  of  farming  is  not  operated 


DIVISION    AND    SPECIALIZATION     143 

from  a  Board  room.  It  is  operated  in  small 
units  by  millions  of  individuals,  each  of  whom 
must  determine  for  himself  what  to  sow  and 
reap,  and  stand  or  fall  by  his  judgment.  If 
an  inventive  genius  were  to  enable  the  Steel 
Corporation  to  manufacture  steel  for  fifty 
cents  on  the  dollar  the  Board  of  Directors 
would  not  manufacture  twice  as  much  steel 
as  before  on  the  theory  that  it  cost  no  more 
to  produce.  Instead,  they  would  close  down 
one-half  of  their  plant.  Likewise,  if  an  over- 
night miracle  should  increase  the  productive- 
ness of  our  acres  one  hundred  per  cent.,  one- 
half  of  our  acres  would  be  forced  to  shut  down 
by  the  cataclysm  of  low  prices. 

Efficiency  of  methods  and  expansion  of 
acreage  must  therefore  follow,  hand  in  hand, 
the  pressure  gauge  of  hunger.  The  farther 
we  go  the  more  difficult  it  becomes  to  expand 
acreage,  because  the  most  refractory  waste 
land  will  be  left  to  the  last.  The  problem 
is  unique  to  each  individual  acre.  The  Far- 
mer of  To-morrow  must  ask  himself,  "Will  it 
be  more  profitable  for  me  to  drain  a  sour 
swamp  or  to  expend  additional  capital  and 
labor  on  land  already  under  cultivation?" 

With  the  end  of  available  arable  land  in 


144     THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

sight,  the  problem  narrows  down  to  one  of 
efficiency — intensive  methods.  It  is  with  one 
phase  of  this  movement  that  we  have  to  do 
in  this  chapter. 

We  have  heard  a  great  deal  during  the  last 
decade  or  two  of  the  wonderful  productive- 
ness of  the  older  farm  lands  of  western  Eu- 
rope. They  are  producing  two  and  sometimes 
three  times  as  much  food  to  the  acre  as  our 
virgin  soil. 

Is  it  merely  a  question  of  method,  of  more 
intelligence,  that  the  farmer  of  Holland  is  able 
to  produce  50  bushels  of  wheat  when  the  far- 
mer of  the  Dakotas  rarely  produces  about  12 
bushels  unless  the  heavens  are  especially 
smiling? 

The  wheat  average  for  Great  Britain  is 
above  32  bushels  an  acre.  The  bulk  of  our 
immigration  previous  to  the  Civil  War — and 
a  goodly  proportion  of  it  for  a  considerable 
period  thereafter — ^was  from  the  British  Isles. 
The  immigrants  were  sons  of  the  soil,  had 
learned  farming  as  an  industry  in  all  its 
branches.  England,  terrorized  by  the  possi- 
bility of  a  Napoleonic  invasion  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  century,  undertook  to  attain  self- 
sufficiency  in  the  matter  of  food,  and  in  an- 


DIVISION    AND    SPECIALIZATION     145 

other  fifty  years  had  doubled  the  productivity 
of  her  acres.  This  was  reflected  in  the  indi- 
vidual, the  immigrant  who  came  to  America 
and  took  up  his  quarter-section  of  land  on  the 
western  prairies.  Here  he  found  new  tools,  a 
soil  that  had  never  known  the  plow.  It  was 
easily  worked,  required  a  minimum  of  labor, 
and  the  weeds  that  had  become  acclimated  to 
the  unbroken  prairie  disappeared  with  culti- 
vation and  did  not  reappear  for  another  gen- 
eration. 

Yet  he  did  not  produce  32  bushels  of  wheat. 
Nor  20,  nor  yet  15,  except  in  bountiful  years. 

Then  came  the  Germans,  the  French,  the 
Dutch,  and  the  Scandinavians.  The  latter 
must  surely  know  efficiency  in  farming,  since 
at  home  a  scant  eight  per  cent,  of  their  land 
is  arable. 

These  are  our  farmers,  these  immigrants 
and  their  sons  and  their  grandsons.  They  are 
for  the  most  part  originally  from  the  west  of 
Europe,  where  pressure  of  population  has  de- 
nied the  working  man  meat  for  many  years. 
Germany  to-day  consumes  only  25  pounds  of 
meat  per  capita — half  a  pound  a  week. 

We  introduced  machinery  such  as  the  Eu- 
ropean was  not  to  know  for  decades.    In  fact. 


146      THE  FARiNlER  OF  TO-MORROW 

the  peasant  of  Russia  still  plows  with  a 
crooked  stick.  We  have  more  schools;  the 
percentage  of  illiteracy  among  iis  is  not  higher 
than  that  of  any  enlightened  European  na- 
tion. Yet  our  farmers,  drawn  from  the  ef- 
ficient acres  of  Europe — they  and  their  de- 
scendants— are  still  producing  food  at  one- 
third  the  rate  of  the  European  farmer. 

What  is  the  answer? 

Not  in  the  fertility  of  the  soil  itself,  surely. 
The  soils  of  Europe  are  a  thousand  years 
older  in  point  of  use  than  our  soils,  and — ac- 
cording to  the  bookkeeping  theory  of  soil  fer- 
tility— should  be  near  exhaustion.  Yet  (as  we 
shall  see  later)  a  recent  comparison  (by  thou- 
sands) of  samples  of  European  and  American 
soils  failed  to  reveal  any  essential  difference 
in  physical  condition  or  mineral  content. 

There  is  one  explanation,  that  is  simple. 
Look  about  and  find  an  immigrant  recently 
arrived  from  western  Europe,  a  farmer  by 
blood  and  training.  Ask  him  why  his  father 
at  home  is  growing  40  or  50  bushels  of  wheat 
when  he  himself  is  growing  12  or  15  bushels. 
Is  the  land  any  better?  No.  Has  the  father 
better  machinery?  No;  the  chances  are  he  has 
not  as  good.     Is  the  old-world  farmer  more 


DIVISION    AND    SPECIALIZATION     147 

intelligent?  No.  His  son  who  is  here  with 
us  has  had  better  educational  advantages. 
Then  why  is  it? 

"Because,"  says  the  son  of  the  old-world 
farmer,  "my  father  does  not  ask  his  land  only 
if  it  will  grow  wheat.  He  asks  it  if  it  will 
grow  wheat  better  than  any  other  crop.  If 
it  would  grow  barley  better  than  wheat  he 
would  grow  barley  instead  of  wheat  in  his 
rotation.  But  it  happens  that  this  particular 
corner  of  his  farm  grows  wheat  better  than 
anything  else.  If  I  went  back  home  and  took 
some  seed  corn  with  me  and  planted  corn 
where  he  grows  wheat,  it  might  happen  that 
the  corn  crop  would  be  a  failure,  even  with 
the  best  cultivation.  My  father  plants  the  crop 
that  is  best  fitted  to  his  own  land." 

How  does  he  know  what  crop  is  best  fitted 
for  his  land? 

His  father  told  him,  and  his  father's  father, 
and  so  on  for  many  generations.  Agricul- 
ture is  further  developed  as  an  art  than  as  a 
science  and  always  will  be.  Science  cannot 
tell  what  crop  is  best  fitted  for  certain  land. 
But  science  plus  experience  can.  Knowledge 
is  built  on  experience,  and  after  a  thousand 
years  of  experience  the  old-world  farmer  has 


148      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

come  to  adapt  his  crop  to  his  land,  not  his 
land  to  the  crop. 

Tradition — that  is  the  starting  point.  That 
is  what  the  emigrant  leaves  behind  him  when 
he  comes  to  this  country  and  raises  fifteen 
bushels  instead  of  forty  or  fifty.  The  prairie 
has  already  selected  its  own  crop,  native 
grasses.  It  would  be  futile  for  the  pioneer 
turning  the  sod  with  his  oxen  to  ask  the  land 
what  crop  it  will  grow  best.  There  is  a  mar- 
ket for  corn  and  wheat.  Will  the  land  grow 
corn  and  wheat?  That  is  all  he  seeks  to  know. 
And  the  round  of  a  single  season  answers  this 
question ;  whereas,  according  to  the  Old  World 
methods,  it  would  take  hundreds  of  years  to 
determine  what  crop  is  best  adapted  to  the 
peculiar  conditions  of  soil  and  climate  of  each 
acre.  There  is  the  belief  that  the  average  soil 
will  produce  any  staple  crop,  and  it  is  true 
in  a  measure.  In  any  event,  in  any  extensive 
system  of  agriculture  the  secret  of  the  indi- 
vidual acre  is  not  of  first  importance.  It  is 
not  until  the  end  of  free  land,  and  then  of 
reclaimable  land,  is  in  sight  that  the  problem 
of  selective  farming  becomes  vital. 

At  home  the  emigrant  possessed  the  secret 
of  each  field,  handed  down  from  father  to  son. 


DIVISION    AND    SPECIALIZATION     149 

In  the  Old  World  every  farm  is  a  center  of 
learning.  Young  men  in  England  and  on 
the  Continent  pay  roundly  for  the  privilege 
of  apprenticing  themselves  to  the  sons  of  hun- 
dreds of  generations  of  farming,  though  the 
secrets  they  learn  do  not  extend  beyond  the 
limits  of  a  square  mile  or  a  county.  They 
do  not  matriculate  for  long  courses  of  study 
in  meteorology,  chemistry,  bacteriology,  etc., 
which  a  younger  people  would  study  to  get  at 
the  same  end  by  deductive  means.  Your  Old 
World  farmer,  who  is  so  often  held  up  to  laugh 
the  American  farmer  to  scorn,  is  not  a  "scien- 
tific farmer,"  as  we  have  come  to  use  the  term. 
If  at  home  the  emigrant  practiced  the  same 
promiscuous  agriculture  that  he  must  needs 
practice  in  a  pioneer  land,  he  would  get  the 
same  returns  as  Jeremiah.  It  is  not  ethics, 
it  is  purely  business.  The  farmers  of  western 
Europe  have  land  that  will  not  grow  more 
than  10  or  15  bushels  of  wheat  to  the  acre. 
They  do  not  grow  wheat  on  these  acres  be- 
cause it  does  not  pay.  Other  crops  pay  better. 
England  has  been  farming  practically  the 
same  acreage  area  since  1350,  although  her 
recent  tax  laws  have  caused  some  additional 
land   to    be    thrown    into    cultivation.      That 


150      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

means  she  has  been  using  the  same  tools  for 
that  length  of  time.  The  Teuton  has  been  at 
it  for  a  thousand  years,  and  China  has  been 
at  it  so  much  longer  that  she  has  learned  by 
experience,  not  by  laboratory  science,  that 
pork  is  the  most  economical  meat  because  the 
hog  is  the  most  efficient  machine  among  meat 
animals. 

Here  we  have  the  starting  point  of  efficiency. 
It  is  not  working  the  acre  harder.  It  is  work- 
ing the  acre  under  the  most  favorable  condi- 
tions, along  the  line  of  least  resistance.  Divi- 
sion of  labor  is  as  economical  among  acres  as 
among  human  beings.  The  appearance  of  the 
term  "corn-belt"  is  a  symptom  of  the  gradual 
movement  toward  the  specialization  of  crops. 
Corn  originated  in  Central  America  and 
gradually  worked  north  until  at  length  we  be- 
lieve it  has  found  its  most  favorable  environ- 
ment in  what  we  term  the  corn-belt.  Very 
simple  influences  may  determine  the  confines 
of  a  crop  zone.  As,  for  instance,  wheat  re- 
quires a  period  of  dry  weather  for  curing  at 
the  same  time  in  the  year  when  corn  requires 
moisture  for  the  best  development  of  its  stalk. 
The  Department  of  Agriculture  is  deluged 
with   requests    for   information   by   farmers. 


DIVISION    AND    SPECIALIZATION     151 

Why,  they  ask,  will  my  land  not  grow  wheat, 
when  it  grows  corn  to  perfection,  or  vice  versa  ? 
They  invariably  send  samples  of  soil  as  the 
key  to  the  riddle.  Here  it  is  not  a  question  of 
soil,  but  of  climate,  seasonal  rainfall.  Large 
areas  in  the  Great  Plains  regions  are  sus- 
ceptible to  winter  wheat  culture,  when  spring 
wheat  would  prove  an  absolute  failure,  and 
vice  versa,  merely  because  of  this  factor  of 
seasonal  rainfall.  But  the  pioneer  in  those 
sections  cannot  answer  those  questions  for  him- 
self until  he  is  in  possession  of  all  the  facts 
affecting  his  acre.  As  the  American  farmer 
gradually  comes  into  possession  of  this  knowl- 
edge, and  applies  it,  the  productiveness  of  his 
acres  automatically  increases  without  a  cor- 
responding increase  in  the  expenditure  of 
labor  and  capital. 

The  first  consideration  determining  the 
proper  agricultural  use  of  soils  is  climate. 

Professor  Milton  Whitney,  chief  of  the 
Bureau  of  Soils,  Department  of  Agriculture, 
sums  up  this  factor  as  follows  (Bulletin  55, 
Bureau  of  Soils) : 

"The  climate  of  continental  United  States 
varies  greatly,  probably  much  more  than  is 
generally  realized.    In  the  southwest  we  have 


152      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

the  semi-tropical  arid  climate.  In  Southern 
Florida  we  have  the  semi-tropical  humid  cli- 
mate. Over  the  country  as  a  whole  we  have 
from  more  than  60  inches  to  less  than  10 
inches  of  rainfall  and  a  range  in  mean  tem- 
perature of  more  than  70  degrees  F.  to  less 
than  40  degrees  F.  The  elevation  of  our 
arable  lands  varies  from  below  sea  level  to 
6,000  feet  above.  We  also  have  varying  types 
of  rainfall;  the  greatest  precipitation  may  oc- 
cur in  the  winter  months  or  may  come  in  the 
summer  months.  We  have  the  greatest  differ- 
ences in  relative  humidity  and  sunshine.  We 
have  differences  in  the  range  of  temperature 
both  seasonal  and  daily,  and  we  have  differ- 
ences in  the  length  of  the  growing  season. 
Finally  we  have  differences  due  to  slope,  ex- 
posure, large  bodies  of  water,  and  other  in- 
fluences too  subtle  for  us  to  measure, 
which  may  determine  the  special  fitness 
of  the  soil  for  a  particular  grade  or  quality  of 
product." 

He  shows  that  with  variations  of  rainfall 
with  intervals  of  10  inches  and  variations  of 
temperature  with  intervals  of  5  degrees  we 
have  forty-six  combinations  of  these  two  fac- 
tors alone,  which  may  affect  crop  development 
and  influence  the  utilization  of  soils.  He  pro- 
ceeds : 


DIVISION    AND    SPECIALIZATION     153 

"While  it  is  not  possible  as  yet  to  give  an 
expression  to  meteorological  data  which  will 
be  a  sufficient  guide  to  crop  characteristics,  it 
is  possible,  by  a  careful  observation  of  crops 
and  native  vegetation,  to  form  a  very  accurate 
estimate  of  crop  possibilities  and  to  define 
areas  in  which  certain  crops  having  certain 
qualities  may  be  produced.  Such  an  area  as 
the  tobacco  area  of  the  Connecticut  Valley 
is  a  case  in  point;  also  areas  producing  sugar 
beets,  sweet  corn  and  some  varieties  of  fruits. 
There  are  special  localities  where  grapes  are 
known  to  do  especially  well.  The  Albemarle 
pippin,  which  grows  best  on  one  particular 
soil,  takes  on  its  brightest  color  only  when 
grown  on  this  soil  in  sheltered  coves  between 
certain  elevations  in  the  Blue  Ridge  Moun- 
tains. 

"The  differences  in  climate  not  only  affect 
the  plant  directly,  but  have  great  effect  upon 
the  soil  and  its  chemical  properties  or  compo- 
sition— particularly  in  regard  to  the  chemistry 
of  its  organic  constituents — making  the  soil  to 
this  extent  a  different  soil  and  thus  affecting 
the  plant." 

Science  unaided  cannot  solve  the  problem 
of  specializing  our  acres.  China  and  Europe 
have  depended  mainly  on  tradition — experi- 
ence. We  are  combining  the  two  means  to 
the  same  end,  and,  as  a  result,  have  set  about 


154     THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

to  acquire  a  knowledge  in  the  course  of  a 
generation  that  has  required  hundreds  of  years 
in  the  older  countries. 

This  task  is  being  carried  out  by  the  Bureau 
of  Soils  in  Washington.  It  is  the  intention, 
figuratively  at  least,  to  make  a  card-index  of 
our  acres ;  quite  a  task  when  we  consider  that 
nearly  a  billion  acres  are  nominally  in  farms. 
In  this  work  the  Bureau  of  Soils  is  aided  by 
the  previous  work  of  the  Geological  Survey 
as  to  the  geological  origin  of  soils,  and  by  the 
Weather  Bureau  as  to  meteorological  con- 
ditions. 

First  comes  the  grand  classification  of  soil 
provinces  in  the  light  of  geological  formation. 
Thus  we  have  a  map  representing  the  result  of 
a  detailed  survey  of  over  106  million  acres  of 
farm  lands  up  to  the  year  1911  represent- 
ing provinces  derived  from  various  agencies, 
among  the  most  important  of  which  are  the 
disintegration  of  old  crystalline  and  meta- 
morphic  rocks,  glacial  action,  the  sediment  of 
rivers,  the  washing  of  waves  and  tides,  the  resi- 
due of  lakes  and  the  retreating  ocean,  wind 
attrition,  heat  metamorphism,  volcanic  action, 
etc.  There  are  in  all  thirteen  great  soil  prov- 
inces, differing  from  each  other  both  as  to  the 


DIVISION    AND    SPECIALIZATION     155 

original  material  and  as  to  the  dominant  agen- 
cies operating  in  the  formation  of  the  soils 
themselves. 

These  in  turn  have  been  subdivided  primarily 
into  more  than  seven  hundred  soil  types,  be- 
yond which  the  subdivisions  are  almost  infinite 
in  number. 

For  the  reader  who  is  interested  in  the  tech- 
nical as  well  as  practical  discussion  of  this  sub- 
ject in  detail,  Bulletin  78,  Bureau  of  Soils, 
*'The  Use  of  Soils  East  of  the  Great  Plains 
Region,"  is  available  through  the  Department 
of  Agriculture;  and  separate  pamphlets  de- 
scribing each  soil  type  are  being  issued  as  the 
work  progresses. 

This  is  pure  science.  What  is  its  practical 
application  to  the  economics  of  American 
agriculture?  How  does  it  affect  the  fortunes 
of  the  Farmer  of  To-morrow? 

By  the  aid  of  pure  science  we  are  manufac- 
turing tradition — the  tool  of  the  European 
farmer — ^in  pill  form,  so  to  speak.  We  do  not 
stop  with  the  classification  of  soils  according 
to  geology  and  meteorology.  At  this  point 
the  investigation  would  be  without  value  to 
the  man  behind  the  plow.  When  the  soil  ex- 
perts bore  a  three-foot  hole  in  an  acre  and  assay 


156      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

it  critically  according  to  text-book  methods, 
they  know  something  about  that  soil  that  the 
curious  farmer  does  not  know. 

But  he  in  turn  has  facts  they  desire.  What 
did  he  plant  on  this  acre  last  year,  the  year  be- 
fore, ten  years  ago?  Did  wheat  pay  better 
than  rye  ?  Did  corn  pay  better  than  potatoes  ? 
What  of  his  rotations?  Here  we  are  getting 
the  testimony  of  the  experiences  of  one  man. 
The  experts  go  to  his  neighbor;  to  a  man  in 
the  next  county  who  is  plowing  the  same  type 
of  soil ;  to  a  man  in  the  next  state,  or  ten  states 
away.  Here  are  hundreds  of  testimonials 
which  can  be  resolved  into  means  and  ex- 
tremes, the  tradition  of  the  Old  World  farmer 
rolled  into  a  handy  unit.  We  are  not  waiting 
a  hundred  or  a  thousand  years.  When  a  soil 
type  has  been  examined  thus  in  all  of  its  de- 
tails, the  Bureau  of  Soils  is  able  to  say  to  the 
farmer  what  type  of  farming  is  best  suited  to 
his  peculiar  acre. 

And  thus  gradually  (for  the  mass  moves 
slowly,  especially  when  advice  is  printed  in 
books)  we  are  coming  to  an  intimate  knowl- 
edge of  the  individual  acres,  which  will  enable 
the  Farmer  of  To-morrow  to  increase  the  pro- 
ductiveness of  his  land  without  a  correspond- 


DIVISION    AND    SPECIALIZATION     157 

ing  increase  in  the  expenditure  of  capital  and 
labor.  It  is  entirely  aside  from  cultural 
methods,  good  seed,  and  the  other  factors.  It 
is  a  secret  available  to  the  slovenly  as  well  as 
the  most  scientific  farmer.  All  of  this  infor- 
mation must  be  made  use  of  in  the  light  of 
markets — cash  return — otherwise  it  is  value- 
less. But  gradually  crop  specialization  is  be- 
coming more  and  more  sharply  defined.  In 
its  grand  divisions  it  is  already  becoming  per- 
ceptible. The  Dakotas  produce  more  wheat 
than  the  Mountain  and  Pacific  States  com- 
bined; Minnesota  outranks  the  entire  country 
east  of  the  Alleghanies  and  south  of  the  Ohio 
River  in  the  same  sphere.  The  single  state 
of  Iowa  produces  thirty  times  more  corn 
than  the  eleven  states  of  the  Far  West. 
Illinois  and  Iowa  have  abandoned  wheat 
culture  for  corn  and  cattle  feeding ;  California 
likewise  has  abandoned  wheat  for  citrus 
fruits. 

It  is  not  merely  a  random  accident  that 
Kentucky  thoroughbreds  come  from  Ken- 
tucky, unless  indeed  the  accident  is  traced  back 
to  the  geological  epoch  when  a  stratum  of 
limestone  was  deposited  in  the  Ohio  River 
valley.    To  illustrate  the  refined  use  of  soils, 


158      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

let  us  quote  again  from  Bulletin  55,  Bureau  of 
Soils : 

"The  peculiar  adaptation  of  soils  to  special 
crops  has  long  been  recognized.  Nowhere  is 
this  more  strikingly  shown  than  in  greenhouse 
culture,  which,  where  manures  and  fertilizers 
are  so  intelligently  used,  is  the  last  place  one 
would  expect  to  find  it. 

"The  hot-house  lettuce  of  Boston  has  long 
been  esteemed  the  finest  product  of  the  kind 
received  in  the  New  York  markets.  The  soil 
used  in  the  hot  houses  is  peculiar  to  the  lo- 
cality. The  soil  used  in  the  greenliouses  of 
Washington  and  Alexandria  will  not  produce 
this  fine  quality  of  lettuce,  but  can  and  does 
produce  fine  violets  of  rich  aroma,  and  these 
have  the  highest  reputation  in  the  New  York 
and  Philadelphia  markets.  In  general,  the 
roses  grown  in  the  greenhouses  around  New 
York  have  the  highest  rank  and  are  so  held 
in  the  Boston  market,  but  certain  varieties  like 
the  American  Beauty  cannot  be  produced 
there  in  the  perfection  that  is  attained  in  the 
greenhouses  of  Philadelphia  and  Washington. 
So  it  goes  with  any  greenhouse  crop  and  with 
each  variety  of  the  crop,  the  soils  of  certain 
localities  have  certain  advantages,  small  often- 
times, but  with  so  highly  specialized  an  in- 
dustry, where  quality  is  so  important,  enough 


DIVISION    AND    SPECIALIZATION     159 

to  give  deserved  reputation  to  the  locality  and 
to  bring  better  prices  to  the  grower." 

"It  is  coming  to  be  realized  that  in  plant 
breeding  consideration  must  be  given  to  the 
character  of  the  soil  on  which  the  strains  have 
been  produced,  as  well  as  to  the  character  of 
the  soil  upon  which  it  is  proposed  to  use  the 
selected  seed  for  crop  production.  Cotton 
which  has  been  carefully  selected  until  it  pro- 
duces large  crops  on  rich  bottom  lands  will 
not  do  so  well  on  sandy  uplands.     *     *     *     * 

"Further,  it  is  quite  probable  that  some  of 
the  soils  which  we  count  as  unproductive  and 
unsuited  to  our  staple  crops,  or  where  the  ex- 
pense of  putting  them  in  condition  for  good 
yields  would  not  at  this  time  be  justified, 
may  be  found  to  be  particularly  adapted  for 
new  crops  for  food,  drugs  or  fiber,  or  plants 
might  be  adapted  to  them  by  introduction  or 
breeding.  This  has  been  the  experience  in 
many  notable  cases;  for  example,  the  utiliza- 
tion of  the  light  sands  of  the  Coastal  Plain 
for  truck  crops,  which  only  twentj^-five  or 
thirty  years  ago  were  considered,  and  indeed 
were,  quite  worthless  for  agricultural  crops 
under  the  conditions  that  had  prevailed.  Also 
the  utilization  of  the  otherwise  quite  value- 
less coast  prairie  lands  of  Louisiana  and  Texas 
for  rice  culture,  when  a  particular  variety  of 
rice,  able  to  stand  the  peculiar  conditions,  was 
found  by  one  of  our  explorers  in  Japan." 


160      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

We  have  already  seen  that  the  introduction 
of  the  rare  date,  the  Deglet  Noor,  seemed 
destined  to  failure  because  a  climate,  otherwise 
propitious,  in  southern  Arizona,  did  not  fur- 
nish a  brief  ripening  season  at  the  right  time. 
This  difficulty  was  solved  by  incubation — pro- 
ducing an  artificial  condition  of  climate.  The 
truck-growers  about  Paris  have  carried  this 
same  idea  to  a  point  where  these  farms  under 
glass  are  capitalized  at  $10,000  an  acre,  by 
transporting  soil  thousands  of  miles,  and  re- 
producing everj^  particular  of  temperature 
and  humidity  that  make  for  the  perfection  of 
special  varieties  of  fruit  and  vegetables. 

Two  provinces  in  little  Belgium  provide  the 
world  with  its  endive  salad;  one  province  in 
Spain,  Almeria,  furnishes  the  world  with  a 
Malaga  grape  that  will  bear  ocean  shipment. 
Corn  grown  in  California  differs  in  its  content 
of  proteids  and  carbohydrates  from  that  grown 
in  Illinois.  Long-staple  cotton  from  the 
Brazos  Valley,  Texas,  transplanted  to  Egj^pt 
becomes  a  short-staple  variety;  and  emigrant 
Swiss  who  thought  to  transplant  a  cheese  in- 
dustry to  Wisconsin  failed  utterly,  even  with 
their  own  Swiss  cattle,  because  the  hills  of 
Wisconsin  could  not  reproduce  the  grass  of 


DIVISION    AND    SPECIALIZATION     161 

the  alps  of  Switzerland.  Wine  and  tobacco 
represent  the  most  refined  specialization.  The 
Connecticut  Valley  is  able  to  reproduce  Cuban 
tobacco  by  means  of  tents,  and  to  the  observer 
from  the  hills  the  whole  valley  in  the  growing 
season  presents  the  illusion  of  a  vast  geometri- 
cal lake  reflecting  dead  white  to  the  blue  sky. 
Wine  is  prized  and  valued  by  yearly  vintages, 
the  slightest  change  in  weather  conditions  af- 
fecting flavor.  California  wines  are  distinc- 
tive despite  the  efforts  to  reproduce  the  vin- 
tages of  the  Rhine,  Moselle  and  Burgundy  by 
introducing  the  vines  themselves.  The  little 
state  of  New  York  has  a  grape  belt  as  narrow 
as  a  ribbon  along  the  shores  of  Lake  Erie; 
and  an  alfalfa  belt  confined  to  a  limestone 
streak  in  the  north  central  part  of  the  state. 
The  apples  of  the  irrigated  valleys  of  the  Far 
West  are  of  distinctive  size  and  color,  yet  they 
cannot  compete  in  flavor  with  the  apples  of 
Virginia  and  New  England. 

Once  the  nature  of  the  crop  best  suited  to 
the  land  is  ascertained,  the  next  step  is  toward 
the  highest  refinement  of  that  particular  crop. 
The  introduction  of  plants  is  one  of  the  oldest 
activities  on  the  part  of  the  government  in  its 


162      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

policy  of  encouraging  agriculture,  yet  only  in 
the  last  few  years  has  it  come  into  prominence 
as  a  factor  of  considerable  importance.  Its 
sphere  is  not  only  to  extend  agriculture  over 
ill-favored  areas  that  do  not  respond  to  ordi- 
nary crops  and  methods,  but  also  to  furnish 
parent  stock  for  breeding  strains  that  will  in- 
crease the  productiveness  of  fertile  acres. 

Here  primarily  is  a  task  for  the  student,  the 
trained  specialist,  to  test  and  apply  the  pro- 
found hypotheses  accounting  for  origin  of 
species.  The  discovery  of  the  long-lost  manu- 
scripts of  Mendel,  the  Austrian,  thus  giving 
to  the  world  his  theory  of  dominant  charac- 
teristics, has  opened  new  fields  of  research. 
Hugo  de  Vries,  and  our  native  Cyril  G.  Hop- 
kins, are  other  individuals  whose  work  is  be- 
coming of  large  significance.  It  was  the  theory 
of  Darwin  that  plants  and  animals  are  able  to 
develop  individual  characteristics  only  as  the 
result  of  environment  and  heredity,  and  then 
only  over  long  periods.  A  deserv^ing  thinker 
who  painstakingly  cut  off  the  tails  of  fifty 
generations  of  mice,  only  to  find  a  large  and 
fully  developed  tail  on  the  fifty-first  generation 
added  nothing  to  the  thought  of  the  world,  al- 
though something  to  the  humor.     Yet  Dr. 


DIVISION    AND    SrECIALIZATION     163 

Hopkins  was  able  to  prove  very  simply  that 
he  could  accomplish  results  in  the  cross-breed- 
ing of  corn,  in  a  single  generation,  which,  ac- 
cording to  Darwin  should  have  required  many 
decades  of  selection  and  survival.  The  work 
of  de  Vries,  Mendel  and  Hopkins  has  placed 
in  the  hands  of  the  intelligent  farmer  the 
means  of  improving  his  own  seed,  developing 
the  particular  strain  of  a  given  plant  best 
adapted  to  the  peculiar  conditions  of  his  land. 
And  once  having  developed  a  pedigreed  strain 
its  vitality  becomes  of  the  utmost  concern. 
The  early  homesteaders  carried  their  bags  of 
seed  west  with  them,  and  continued  sowing 
from  the  same  seed  year  after  year.  In  fact 
in  their  penny-pinching  economies  they  fre- 
quently saved  the  culls  of  their  harvest  as 
seed,  because  of  the  higher  price  their  grain 
would  bring  when  sorted  and  graded.  Small 
wonder  that  inside  of  a  generation  yields  in 
many  sections  began  to  fall  off,  when  the  short- 
sighted husbandman  sought  to  perpetuate  his 
prosperity  by  breeding  from  the  weakest  in- 
stead of  the  strongest  of  his  seeds.  Not  many 
years  ago  a  rural  journal  in  Iowa  sent  a 
student  among  the  Iowa  farmers  to  test  the 
vitality  of  their  seed  corn.     The  investigator 


164     THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

reported  the  astonishing  finding  that  over  fifty 
per  cent,  of  the  seed  saved  by  the  farmer  for 
the  next  planting  was  sterile.  This  meant 
something  in  dollars  and  cents  to  the  Iowa 
farmer.  It  meant  that  only  two  out  of  the 
usual  four  grains  to  the  hill  germinated.  And 
the  student  was  able  to  drive  the  fact  home 
at  this  point  by  still  another  simple  truth  that 
has  been  learned  recently.  It  is  this:  Ex- 
perience in  breeding  has  proved  that  a  large 
perfect  ear  of  corn  selected  for  breeding  pur- 
poses is  more  prepotent  when  selected  from 
a  hill  having  several  healthy  stalks  than  a  hill 
having  only  one.  Why  this  is  true  is  less  im- 
portant to  the  farmer  in  the  field  than  the 
simple  fact  that  it  has  been  found  to  be  true. 
It  enables  him  now  to  select  his  seed  corn  at 
harvest  time  with  regard  both  to  the  vigor 
of  the  plant  and  the  perfection  of  the  ear; 
and  any  farmer  who  is  unable  to  test  the  ger- 
minating quality  of  this  corn  at  home  can 
send  it  to  his  state  experiment  station  and 
have  it  done  for  him. 

Throughout  the  run  of  our  staple  crops,  we 
are  beginning  to  appreciate  the  importance 
of  the  Mendelian  theory  of  dominant  char- 
acteristics.    There  are  dozens  of  varieties  of 


DIVISION    AND    SPECIALIZATION     165 

each,  well  developed  in  their  individuality,  to 
be  had  for  a  price  by  the  farmer  who  seeks  to 
adapt  his  crop  to  his  soil.  Many  of  them,  like 
certain  strains  of  English  oats,  are  not  capable 
of  being  propagated  on  their  adopted  soil  year 
after  year,  making  it  necessary,  in  order  to 
preserve  the  characteristics  of  the  strain,  to 
constantly  import  fresh  seed.  Plant-breeding 
has  long  since  passed  beyond  simple  esthetics, 
although  form  and  color  in  the  flower-garden 
have  developed  vital  truths  to  be  applied  to 
the  economics  of  agriculture;  as  witness  the 
life-long  toil  of  Johann  Mendel  in  his  Austrian 
mountain  monastery,  with  his  sweet  peas. 

The  adjustment  of  crops  to  economic  and 
soil  conditions  is  in  its  infancy  as  yet  among 
us.  Yet  the  last  census  developed  the  fact 
that  the  only  state  east  of  the  Mississippi  River 
producing  enough  wheat  for  home  consump- 
tion was  Delaware.  Wheat  has  been  grad- 
ually moving  west  to  cheaper  lands,  until  now 
Minnesota,  the  two  Dakotas,  Nebraska  and 
Kansas  produce  nearly  two-thirds  of  the 
nation's  supply. 

Wheat  and  the  small  grains  are  less  suscep- 
tible than  other  crops  to  intensive  cultivation. 
Once  they  have  been  provided  with  carefully 


166     THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

selected  soil  and  seed,  the  human  factor  counts 
for  little.  For  this  reason  wheat  is  continually 
moving  toward  cheap  land  where  it  can  be  pro- 
duced on  a  large  scale  with  a  small  expendi- 
ture of  labor.  Europe  presents  a  striking  il- 
lustration of  this  fact.  Mr.  Frank  R.  Rutter 
of  the  federal  Bureau  of  Statistics  was  sent 
abroad  to  make  a  study  of  the  production  of 
cereals  in  Europe  in  1907  and  published  his 
findings  in  the  pamphlet,  "Cereal  Production 
in  Europe."  He  found  that  during  1901-1905 
the  average  yield  of  wheat  in  northwestern 
Europe  was  above  25  bushels ;  in  southwestern 
Europe,  16  bushels;  and  in  eastern  Europe 
(Russia),  12  bushels. 

"It  appears,  therefore,"  he  says,  "that  the 
average  yield  per  acre  is  highest  where  wheat 
culture  is  less  generally  practiced,  and  where 
the  acreage  under  the  grain  shows  the  smallest 
increase.  In  other  words,  the  extension  of 
wheat  area  is  most  marked  where  the  average 
yield  is  lowest.     *     *     * 

"That  the  extent  of  wheat  culture  should 
vary  inversely  as  the  average  yield  per  acre, 
or,  in  other  words,  where  the  results  are  best, 
the  smallest  areas  are  devoted  to  wheat,  seems 
at  first  sight  paradoxical.  It  must  be  remem- 
bered that  a  high  average  yield,  such  as  shown 


DIVISION    AND    SPECIALIZATION     167 

in  the  Teutonic  countries  of  Europe,  presup- 
poses intelligence  on  the  part  of  the  farmers 
and  valuable  land  justifying  a  large  outlay  of 
capital.  These  conditions  are  much  more 
favorable  to  the  growth  of  crops  requiring  in- 
tensive cultivation  than  to  grain  crops  which 
give  the  highest  profit  when  grown  on  new 
land  on  a  large  scale." 

Thus,  it  is  profitable  to  grow  wheat  in 
western  Europe  only  on  the  land  most  highly 
specialized  by  nature  for  its  production,  be- 
cause of  the  high  capitalization  of  land  due 
to  the  excessive  population.  It  resolves  itself 
into  a  purely  commercial  proposition  that 
western  Europe  looks  to  the  rest  of  the  world 
for  its  bread  while  Russia,  struggling  with 
medieval  laws  and  customs,  presents  an  enor- 
mous area,  its  Black  Earth  Belt,  for  extensive 
wheat  growing. 

Mr.  Rutter  was  able  to  collect  statistics  in 
France  to  illustrate  strikingly  this  very  point. 
He  shows  that  the  returns  from  an  acre  in 
France  during  the  few  years  preceding  1905 
were  $153  for  hops;  tobacco,  $93;  flax,  $72; 
fresh  beans  and  peas,  $62 ;  and  hemp  $54.  The 
various  grains  on  the  other  hand  averaged  only 
$18,  ranging  from  $21  for  wheat  to  $12  for 


168     THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

buckwheat.  Turning  to  the  Netherlands,  a 
land  of  small  holdings,  and  therefore  intensive 
culture,  tobacco  returned  $213  gross,  and  grain 
only  $21. 

The  surplus  production  of  small  grains 
presents  a  problem  for  the  distant  future, 
especially  when  we  remember  that  small  grains 
provide  three-fifths  of  our  diet.  Extensive 
culture  of  this  most  important  item  of  diet 
'  must  always  mark  the  frontiers ;  and  before  us 
to-day  we  have  the  undeveloped  Black  Earth 
Belt  of  Russia,  the  western  plains  of  Canada 
and  the  United  States,  Brazil,  Argentine, 
Australia,  and  the  unexplored  regions  in  the 
interior  of  Africa. 

If  we  turn  again  to  America  to  seek  in  what 
sections  the  highest  type  of  farming  has  been 
developed,  as  regards  specialization  of  soils, 
we  should  naturally  decide  it  was  to  be  found 
in  the  East  where  the  land  had  been  under 
cultivation  longest.  And  this  is  what  we  ac- 
tually do  find,  in  the  face  of  the  popular  belief 
that  the  western  prairies  are  the  most  fertile 
intrinsically. 

It  is  the  western  prairies  that  produce  the 
surplus   through   the    sheer    extent    of   their 


DIVISION    AND    SPECIALIZATION     169 

acreage,  while  it  is  the  isolated  and  scattered 
farming  areas  east  of  the  Alleghanies  that 
present  the  best  acreage  returns.  A  glance 
at  the  government  crop  reports  is  sufficient 
to  show  that  in  the  matter  of  staple  crops  the 
acres  devoted  to  them  in  the  East  produce 
more  pro  rata  than  the  acres  devoted  to  them 
in  the  West.  As  an  example,  Maine  and  Ver- 
mont produced  23  and  25  bushels  of  wheat  per 
acre  respectively  in  1912,  against  the  national 
weighted  average  of  15.9.  The  same  parallel 
holds  good  in  corn,  in  which  New  England 
generally  averaged  45.3  bushels,  against  29.2 
for  the  country  as  a  whole. 

Land  is  not  more  valuable  in  the  East.  The 
price  of  land  and  its  productive  power,  as  we 
have  seen,  have  practically  driven  wheat  cul- 
ture from  western  Europe.  But  in  our  own 
East  we  must  seek  another  reason  for  the  more 
productive  acres.  That  reason  is  to  be  found 
in  the  fact  we  have  already  alluded  to  in  the 
present  chapter.  The  lands  of  our  East  have 
been  under  cultivation  longer,  acreage  hold- 
ings are  smaller,  and  only  those  fields — some- 
times only  an  acre  or  two  in  extent — are  de- 
voted to  small  grains  and  corn  which  have 
proved  themselves,  over  the  course  of  many 


170     THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

generations,  to  be  the  best  adapted  for  such 
culture. 

Up  to  the  present  time  the  hne  representing 
productiveness  of  our  acres,  taken  as  a  whole, 
has  remained  practically  stationary,  subject 
in  the  main  only  to  variations  in  climatic  con- 
ditions, both  from  year  to  year  and  from  dec- 
ade to  decade.  It  has  followed  the  sunshine- 
and-rain  rate  of  production.  Isolate  New 
England,  however,  and  we  at  once  have 
vizualized  a  sharp  upward  tendency.  The 
area  devoted  to  farms  in  New  England,  how- 
ever, is  too  small  to  affect  the  national  aver- 
age; just  as  the  wheat  production  of  western 
Europe,  of  which  we  hear  so  much  in  the  litera- 
ture of  intensive  propaganda,  does  not  sensibly 
affect  the  production  for  Europe  as  a  whole. 
Europe  as  a  whole  produces  only  about  14 
bushels  to  the  acre,  according  to  the  statistics 
compiled  by  Mr.  Rutter.  And,  in  addition  to 
specializing  her  acres,  New  England  is  old 
enough  to  have  developed  strains  of  grain 
adapted  to  her  acres.  Yields  of  100  bushels  of 
native  flint  corn  are  not  uncommon  in 
Connecticut  and  Massachusetts;  and  Maine 
leads  the  nation  in  potatoes,  with  nearly  200 
bushels  per  acre,  against  a  national  average 


DIVISION    AND    SPECIALIZATION     171 

seldom  touching  100,  and  usually  around  80 
bushels. 

Yet  the  old  line  farmers  have  lived  to  see 
priine  land  selling  at  $25  to  $50  an  acre  in  the 
East,  when  speculators,  still  imder  stress  of 
the  western  movement,  are  willing  to  pay  $100 
for  raw  land  300  miles  west  of  Kansas  City. 

Aside  from  the  problem  of  soil  fertility  it- 
self, then,  the  maximum  efficiency  of  the  plant 
of  the  American  farmer  will  be  attained  when 
the  last  refractory  acre  has  been  reclaimed, 
and  each  individual  area  is  devoted  to  the  type 
of  agriculture  bringing  the  maximum  returns 
with  an  accepted  standard  of  cultural  methods 
— always  interpreted  in  terms  of  available 
markets.  Many  farms  produce  noxious  weeds 
in  terms  of  highest  efficiency  as  concerns  bulk ; 
yet,  without  a  market  for  weeds  as  such,  the 
farmer  supplants  them  with  some  less  profuse, 
but  more  readily  marketable,  crop. 

As  we  said  in  the  beginning,  ethics  does  not 
enter  into  consideration  at  all.  Farming  is  a 
subsidized  industry.  The  nation  has  pre- 
sented the  farmer  with  nearly  a  billion  acres 
as  his  plant,  and  capitalized  it  for  him  in  terms 
of  hunger.  It  is  a  fanciful  conception  to  pic- 
ture the  farmer  as  the  trustee  of  the  soil.    But 


172     THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

farming  is  a  business  which  looks  neither  to 
its  debt  to  posterity,  nor  to  its  debt  to  our 
fathers.  To  establish  and  maintain  its  highest 
proficiency,  it  can  consider  only  the  immediate 
dollars  and  cents  returns.  Beyond  that  science 
and  intensive  propaganda  are  economic  fal- 
lacies. 


CHAPTER   VI 

THE   BOOKKEEPING   THEORY   OF 
SOIL  FERTILITY 

The  vital  question  for  the  Farmer  of  To- 
morrow, however,  is  not  how  much  land  there 
is,  but  how  much  fertilitj^  there  is  in  the  land 
that  he  possesses,  or  may  finall}^  possess.  How 
long,  in  other  words,  at  a  given  rate  of  pro- 
duction, will  the  soil  continue  to  feed  us? 

The  acres  are  counted,  are  definite  in  num- 
ber. There  never  can  be  any  more  acres,  and, 
once  the  last  of  arable  land  has  been  put  under 
the  plow,  the  only  means  of  producing  more 
food  is  to  speed  up  the  machine — to  take  more 
out  of  the  soil.  That  brings  us  to  the  most 
important,  and,  at  the  same  time,  the  most  per- 
plexing, of  the  problems  confronting  the 
farmer  of  the  future. 

How  much  fertility  is  there  in  the  soil? 

Malthus  preached  a  theory  of  doom  a  cen- 
tury ago,  and  kept  all  Europe  gloomy  for 

173 


174.     THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

more  than  fifty  years  turning  over  his 
prophecies.  He  said  that,  while  population 
increases  in  a  geometrical  progression,  the  food 
supply  increases  in  arithmetical  progression. 
Vice,  crime  and  disease  slow  up  the  unequal 
race;  nevertheless  population  must  inevitably 
overtake  the  food  supply  at  definite  periods, 
and  the  only  means  of  evening  matters  again 
is  starvation.  It  was  a  mere  matter  of  mathe- 
matics. Regardless  of  how  many  million 
acres  of  unproductive  land  there  existed  at 
that  time  in  the  new  countries,  the  day  must 
inevitably  arrive  when  the  world  would  be  face 
to  face  with  the  limits  of  production  of  its 
granaries. 

Some  fifty  years  after  this  doctrine  went 
abroad.  Baron  Justin  von  Liebig  came  for- 
ward with  a  theory  which  seemed  to  postpone 
for  a  time  at  least  the  impending  catastrophe. 
He  said  that  crops  remove  certain  ingredients 
from  the  soil,  but  the  soil  may  be  made  to 
produce  indefinitely,  even  at  a  greatly  acceler- 
ated rate,  simply  by  adding  these  ingredients 
in  chemical  form. 

He  named  these  nutrients  of  which  the  soil 
would  be  despoiled  by  constant  cropping — 
nitrogen,  potash  and  phosphorus,  and  showed 


THEORY    OF    SOIL    FERTILITY       175 

how  simple  it  was  to  mine  them,  pack  them  in 
bags,  and  scatter  them  where  they  were  needed 
for  growing  crops. 

He  conceived  the  soil,  figuratively  at  least, 
as  a  medium  in  which  might  be  mixed,  syntheti- 
cally, all  the  nutrients  required  by  plants.  As 
a  matter  of  fact  this  idea  is  practiced  in  ex- 
perimental laboratories  at  the  present  day,  by 
growing  plants  in  distilled  water,  to  which 
have  been  added  the  requisite  amounts  of  the 
diflPerent  "plant  foods"  in  soluble  form. 

The  world  took  heart  at  the  announcement 
of  this  theory,  which  seemed  to  establish  the 
secret  of  soil  fertility  by  actual  field  tests. 
The  weight  of  the  name  of  the  great  chemist, 
the  greatest  of  his  times,  and  the  seemingly 
striking  verification  following  the  practice  of 
his  teachings,  caused  this  theory,  the  "theory 
of  the  mineral  requirements  of  plants,"  to  be 
generally  accepted. 

The  possibility  that  the  niter  beds  from 
which  the  world  derived  its  agricultural 
nitrates,  and  the  potash  and  phosphate  mines 
would  prove  as  limited  in  extent  as  the  supply 
of  coal  or  iron  or  gold  began  to  worry  the 
thinkers  in  another  generation.  It  was  less 
than  ten  years  after  the  opening  of  the  present 


176      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

century  that  Sir  William  Crookes  arose  before 
the  British  Association  for  the  Advancement 
of  Science,  and,  with  the  authority  of  one  of 
the  greatest  scientists  of  to-day,  and  the  added 
prestige  of  being  president  of  the  organiza- 
tion he  addressed,  made  the  startling  predic- 
tion that  the  world  must  cease  growing  wheat 
in  another  fifty  years  because  of  the  exhaus- 
tion of  nitrate  beds. 

The  exhaustion  of  the  world's  supply  of 
commercial  nitrates  is  being  hastened  not  only 
by  the  demands  to  feed  men,  but  by  the  neces- 
sity of  perfecting  devices  to  kill  men.  The 
manufacture  of  gunpowder  and  other  ex- 
plosives used  in  war  requires  many  times  as 
much  nitrogen  annually  as  the  demands  of 
agriculture,  and  at  the  present  rate  of  con- 
sumption  the  end  seemed  imminent. 

So  again  the  bogey  of  the  Malthusian  doc- 
trine became  a  specter  and  the  governments 
of  the  world  set  about  surveying  and  protect- 
ing, for  their  own  use,  by  laws,  their  supplies 
of  mineral  "plant  foods."  By  the  beginning 
of  the  new  century,  the  new  lands  of  the 
United  States,  under  cultivation  in  the  main 
for  less  than  sixtj'^  years,  were  consuming  up- 
ward of  $100,000,000   annually  in   chemical 


THEORY    OF    SOIL    FERTILITY       177 

fertilization,  and  yearly  the  amount  was  grow- 
ing, due  to  the  teachings  of  the  officially  es- 
tablished federal  and  state  agricultural  ex- 
periment stations.  The  nations  of  western 
Europe  were  using  even  more  chemicals  for 
crop  production  than  America.  At  length 
economists,  whose  faith  in  the  theory  of  ulti- 
mate doom  is  guided  solely  by  the  teachings 
of  Liebig,  have  come  to  view  with  chagrin 
the  billions  of  dollars  of  food  that  the  Ameri- 
can nation  has  exchanged  for  gold  in  the  last 
century,  and  figure  it  as  so  much  potential 
fertility  wasted.  For  gold,  exchanged  for 
nitrogen,  potash  and  phosphorus,  in  the  shape 
of  grain  and  meats,  has  no  nutrient  value  as 
food. 

Thus  Malthus  is  born  again,  and,  with  the 
passing  of  free  land,  the  United  States  has 
found  itself  confronted  by  a  cry  of  exhaustion 
of  the  soil.    The  theory  is,  in  short: 

The  acreage,  the  floor  space  for  food  con- 
sumption, is  definite. 

The  plant  food,  the  innate  fertility  of  the 
soil,  is  limited. 

The  three  elements,  nitrogen,  potash  and 
phosphorus,  available  as  commercial  fertilizers, 
have  been  blocked  out  by  geological  surveys. 


178      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

And,  lastly,  the  hungry  world  marches  for- 
ward in  numbers,  its  appetite  increasing  in 
geometrical  ratio. 

How  imminent,  or  how  remote,  is  the  catas- 
trophe, not  only  of  the  starvation  of  a  part 
that  the  rest  may  live,  but  of  the  starvation 
of  the  whole  world?  Mathematically,  one  con- 
sideration, that  of  starvation  of  the  whole,  is  as 
sound  as  starvation  of  a  part.  Carrying  coals 
to  Newcastle  is  a  trite  saying,  yet  the  day  must 
inevitably  come  when  coals  must  be  carried  to 
Newcastle  before  coals  can  be  carried  away. 
Coal  and  iron,  phosphate  rock  and  potash — 
there  is  a  bottom  to  every  mine. 

This  is  not  an  illusory  hypothesis.  It  is 
the  accepted  theory  and  practice  of  the  civil- 
ized nations  of  the  world,  with  the  single  ex- 
ception of  China,  where  agriculture  has  been 
going  on  for  forty  centuries ;  and  her  acres  are 
still  feeding  a  population  fifteen  or  twenty 
times  as  dense  as  our  own,  without  regard  to 
potash  and  phosphorus  in  chemical  form. 

If  this  theory  is  the  basis  for  accepted  prac- 
tice in  our  agriculture,  then  surely  it  should 
reflect  itself,  to  some  extent  at  least,  in  the 
value  of  land.  Dr.  Cyril  G.  Hopkins  of  the 
University  of  Illinois  has  gone  to  considerable 


THEORY    OF    SOIL    FERTILITY       179 

pains  ("Soil  Fertility  and  Permanent  Agri- 
culture") to  analyze  the  resources  of  the  soil 
of  his  state  and  to  set  down  in  definite  figures 
how  many  ordinary  crops  of  corn  may  be 
grown  before  the  soil  is  mined  empty.  Be- 
yond that  time,  which  he  numbers  in  years 
encompassing  only  two  or  three  generations, 
the  soil  becomes  merely  a  mixing  bowl.  It  is 
no  longer  innately  fertile.  Ultimately  one 
can  imagine  it  as  comparable  to  the  beaker  of 
distilled  water  in  which  the  scientist  of  to-day 
experiments  by  adding  just  enough  plant  food 
to  grow  a  fixed  crop. 

If  a  given  acre  will  cease  producing  food 
entirely,  or  even  fall  so  low  in  productiveness 
that  the  crop  does  not  repay  the  labor  ex- 
pended thereon,  such  a  condition  must  affect 
the  value  of  the  land.  And,  in  addition,  if,  to 
keep  that  soil  fertile,  the  husbandman  must 
feed  the  soil  to  make  it  feed  him,  again  the 
value  of  the  land  must  be  affected.  To  use  a 
far-fetched  illustration,  the  mines  of  Newcastle 
when  empty  of  their  virgin  coal,  and  filled 
again  by  carrying  coals  to  Newcastle,  would 
be  worth  the  market  value  of  that  coal,  minus 
what  it  cost  to  buy  that  coal  in  the  first  place 
plus  the  cost  of  transportation.     "Salting"  a 


180      THE   FARMER  OF   TO-:\IORROW 

mine  and  adding  plant  food  to  the  soil  differ 
only  in  degree.  One  is  criminal,  while  the 
other  is  preached  officially  as  scientific  and 
ethical. 

The  value  of  a  gold  mine  is  appraised,  not 
by  the  amount  of  gold  that  is  being  taken  out 
of  a  shaft,  but  by  the  reports  of  a  trustworthy 
body  of  engineers  who  have  examined  the 
geological  formation  to  which  the  mine  owes 
its  richness,  and  determined  the  extent  of  the 
lode.  Such  a  mine  might  produce  5  per  cent, 
net  during  the  first  year  of  its  exploitation, 
and  continue  to  produce  at  the  same  rate  for 
twenty  years.  At  the  end  of  its  twentieth 
year  it  still  produces  5  per  cent,  net,  until  it 
is  mined  of  the  last  ounce  of  gold  it  contains. 
The  only  way  to  take  more  gold  out  of  that 
mine  is  to  put  more  gold  in.  Therefore  the 
shares  of  that  mine  are  not  valued  as  a  5  per 
cent,  investment  in  the  end,  but  as  assets  which 
have  shrunk  to  5  per  cent,  of  their  original 
value. 

Apply  the  same  principle  to  the  fertility 
of  the  land.  It  is  not  so  far-fetched  as  it  seems 
at  first  glance,  because  we  are  told  that  already 
a  large  area  of  our  farms  has  reached  a  point 
where  artificial  fertilizers,  "salt,"  are  required. 


THEORY    OF    SOIL    FERTILITY      181 

not  only  to  increase  fertility,  but  even  to  main- 
tain the  fertility  that  has  made  these  acres 
valuable  heretofore. 

When  we  come  to  search  for  parallels  to  the 
gold  mine  example,  we  actually  do  not  find 
them  in  farm  valuations,  except  in  the  rare  in- 
stances of  naturally  unproductive  lands.  Such 
instances  are  so  remote  from  this  consideration 
of  the  subject  that  they  need  not  be  reckoned 
with  at  all.  On  the  other  hand,  while  the  rank 
and  file  of  scientists  agree — and  here  we  should 
accept  the  rural  scientists  as  we  accept  the 
mining  engineers — while  the  rank  and  file  of 
the  orthodox  scientists  agree  that  our  farm 
land  is  slowly  and  inevitably  declining  in  native 
fertility  J  the  price  of  that  same  farm  land  ad- 
vances steadily.  Land  is  better  as  collateral 
to-day  than  it  was  yesterday. 

There  are  coming  to  be  exceptions,  it  is 
true — bankers,  for  instance,  who  listen  to  the 
theory  of  Liebig  and  demand  that  the  farmer 
feed  his  soil,  return  to  it  as  much  as  he  takes 
away,  before  he  can  raise  a  loan  with  land  as 
security.  I  have  before  me  now  a  paper  by 
a  banker  of  the  Middle  West,  who  demands 
such  a  system.  He  offers  the  farmers  of  his 
neighborhood  loans  on  their  land,  providing 


182      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

they  agree  to  "maintain  the  fertility  of  their 
land"  by  adding  artificial  ingredients  as  plant 
food  for  to-morrow.  On  the  other  hand  here 
is  the  paper  of  another  financier,  from  the  Far 
West,  where  the  fruitful  acres  are  few  and 
isolated  and  capitalized  at  a  high  rate,  and 
worked  by  the  last  word  in  intensive  culture — 
that  is,  they  are  being  drained  of  their  innate 
fertility  by  the  speediest  methods  known  to 
science.  This  financier  seeks  farm  mortgages 
on  the  basis  of  what  the  land  actually  produces. 
He  arrives  at  his  calculation  of  the  value  of 
land  by  what  it  produced  yesterday  and  the 
day  before.  He  does  not  inquire  what  it  will 
produce  to-morrow.  He  is  willing  to  let  the 
to-morrow  take  care  of  itself.  He  has  faith, 
in  the  face  of  the  theory  of  doom,  that  if  a 
given  acre  can  be  made  to  produce  a  certain 
magnitude  of  food  to-day,  it  can  be  made  to 
do  the  same  to-morrow  and  the  next  day — 
and,  what  is  most  important  to  him,  at  a  profit- 
able rate. 

The  National  Conservation  Commission 
was  established  for  the  task  of  taking  an  in- 
ventory of  our  national  possessions,  among  the 
most  important  of  which  is  the  fertility  of  the 


THEORY    OF    SOIL    FERTILITY       183 

land,  the  resources  of  the  soil  for  food  produc- 
tion. The  Geological  Survey  was  able  to  fur- 
nish in  definite  form  the  extent  of  our  coal 
supply  in  tons,  and  from  these  figures  it  was 
simple  enough  to  ascertain  the  remoteness  of 
the  day  of  doom  in  coal,  by  dividing  the  total 
supply  by  the  estimated  annual  consump- 
tion. They  were  able  to  calculate  the  extent 
of  the  national  resources  in  waterpower, 
measured  in  feet-per-second  of  available 
streams.  The  Department  of  Agriculture 
produced  statistics  showing  that  to-day  our 
annual  consumption  of  lumber  is  forty  billion 
feet  and  compared  this  with  the  annual  growth 
of  our  forests,  showing  that  if  eventually  we 
did  not  resort  to  reforestation  on  a  grand  scale, 
we  must  soon  arrive  at  the  end  of  our  supply 
of  timber.  They  did  not  concern  themselves 
in  this  connection  with  the  resources  of  "plant- 
food"  necessary  to  grow  a  definite  amount  of 
timber  annually.  That  seemed  beside  the 
question.  Still,  it  is  readily  computed,  for  we 
know  how  much  "plant-food"  every  board-foot 
of  lumber  takes  from  the  soil.  The  mere  fac- 
tor of  rain  necessary  to  supply  our  annual  de- 
mand for  lumber,  computed  on  the  equation 
of  1,000  parts  of  water  for  one  part  of  dry 


184.      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

weight,  is  an  important  item.  While  several 
hundred  million  acres,  rich  in  every  requisite 
but  moisture,  are  sterile  in  the  Far  West,  our 
annual  consumption  of  lumber  requires  a 
water-duty  of  three  inches  of  rain  spread  out 
in  a  blanket  that  covers  the  two  billion  acres 
of  continental  United  States. 

Thus  the  timber  resources  were  calculated 
from  the  extent  of  the  forests  and  the  rate  of 
growth;  the  water  resources  from  the  flow  of 
streams  in  cubic  feet-per-second  translated 
into  foot-pounds  of  energy;  and  the  mines — 
coal,  gold,  etc. — by  cubic  measure  estimated  by 
trained  geologists  and  engineers. 

The  next  step  was  to  ascertain,  if  possible, 
the  extent  of  the  food  resources  of  the  nation, 
as  expressed  in  terms  of  soil  fertility.  This 
question  comes  nearer  home  to  Jeremiah  the 
Reaper  and  Jeremiah  the  Gleaner  than  any 
other  phase  of  the  inventory  of  national  re- 
sources. It  has  to  do,  first,  with  his  hunger, 
then  with  his  pocketbook. 

Is  the  acre,  which  Jeremiah  has  mellowed 
with  untold  labor,  a  mine  of  fertility  which  he 
must  continually  "salt,"  in  proportion  as  he 
is  successful  in  applying  scientific  methods  for 
extracting  maximum  crops?    Is  it  a  bank  ac- 


THEORY    OF    SOIL    FERTILITY      185 

count,  on  which  every  crop  is  a  check  marching 
inevitably  toward  insolvency,  if  he  fails  to 
return  as  much  food  as  he  takes  out?  Is  it 
true  that  after  less  than  two  generations  of 
farming  we  have  produced  so  extensively, 
taken  so  much  innate  fertility  out  of  the  soil 
for  home  consumption  and  to  satisfy  the  in- 
ternational balance  of  trade,  that  we  must  now 
begin  to  rob  Peter  to  repay  Paul? 

All  that  Jeremiah  hears,  if  he  listens  to  the 
counsel  of  the  official  preceptors  of  his  state 
experiment  stations,  to  the  editorials  of  his 
rural  papers,  or  to  the  advice  of  the  man  who 
has  chemical  plant  food  to  sell,  is  that  the 
danger  of  soil  exhaustion  is  not  something  re- 
mote and  mythical,  like  the  advance  of  the 
polar  ice  cap  toward  the  equator,  but  a  con- 
dition that  is  actually  upon  him,  threatening 
starvation  for  himself  and  his  children. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  he  be  sufficiently  in- 
terested or  frightened  to  delve  deep  into  the 
mountain  of  literature  on  the  subject,  he  will 
find  hidden  away,  discredited  by  the  huge 
army  of  preceptors  who  have  grown  up  since 
Liebig,  a  pronunciamento  by  the  Bureau  of 
Soils  of  the  United  States  government,  which 
says: 


186      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

The  resources  of  the  soil  are  the  one  im- 
mutable asset  of  the  nation.  They  can  be  im- 
paired by  abuse,  but  never  destroyed. 

If  by  any  chance  he  encounters  this 
hypothesis,  it  will  only  serve  to  puzzle  him  the 
more,  so  thoroughly  soaked  is  he  in  the  doc- 
trines that  have  actuated  the  teachings  in 
agriculture  and  established  the  chemical  fer- 
tilizer industry.  The  chances,  however,  are 
that  he  has  not  heard  of  this  theory,  or,  if  he 
has,  that  it  has  been  laughed  out  of  his  head 
by  his  neighbors'  sons  who  are  home  from 
college  where  they  received  farm  training,  and 
anticipate  practicing  teaching  according  to 
Liebig.  It  was  first  announced  by  the  United 
States  Department  of  Agriculture  in  1908. 
We  will  examine  it  in  detail  later.  It  is  suffi- 
cient to  say  now  that  China,  after  forty  cen- 
turies of  intensive  farming,  such  as  even 
western  Europe  does  not  practice,  has  not  yet 
learned  the  use  of,  or  even  acknowledged  the 
necessity  for  chemicals  as  "plant  food." 

If,  as  the  accepted  hypothesis  of  soil  re- 
sources states,  the  number  of  crops  that  can  be 
taken  from  a  given  cubic  foot  of  soil  can  be 
ascertained  mathematically,  simply  by  dividing 


THEORY    OF    SOIL    FERTILITY       187 

the  total  plant  minerals  in  that  cubic  foot  by 
the  amount  of  those  minerals  one  crop  re- 
moves, then  the  question  of  the  resources  of 
our  soils  is  even  more  easily  computed  than  the 
resources  of  our  mines.  We  have  the  resources 
of  our  coal  supply  set  before  us  in  cubic  yards, 
pounds  if  you  wish. 

It  is  not  even  necessary,  in  the  light  of  this 
hypothesis,  to  examine  all  the  minerals  en- 
tering into  plant  growth.  If  any  one  of  them 
is  lacking  in  a  given  soil,  that  soil  is  sterile. 

To  get  at  the  means  that  might  be  employed 
to  strike  the  balance  of  soil  fertility,  we  will 
review  briefly  the  hypothesis  of  Liebig.  He 
incinerated  plants  and  subjected  the  ashes  to 
chemical  analysis.  Plants  take  their  food 
from  the  earth,  air  and  water.  By  burning  the 
plants,  he  eliminated  the  factors  in  plant 
growth  due  to  air  and  water,  which  seemed 
to  him  infinite  in  resource.  Thus,  in  his 
crucible,  he  retained  only  the  mineral  in- 
gredients. His  analysis  developed  the  fact 
that  among  the  principal  elements  required  in 
the  growth  of  plants  were  potash  and  phos- 
phorus. Among  those  elements  derived  from 
air  and  water,  he  considered  only  nitrogen  as 
fugitive.     As  the  result  of  his  researches  he 


188      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

came  to  the  conclusion  that  nitrogen,  potash 
and  phosphorus  were  the  only  elements  which 
were  important,  as  being  limited  in  supply. 

To  make  use  of  any  of  its  elements  of  food, 
a  plant  must  find  it  present  in  the  soil  in 
available  form.  Upon  the  meaning  of  this 
word  "available"  hangs  the  whole  of  the  Liebig 
hypothesis.  It  was  believed  by  him,  and  is 
taught  to-day,  that  although  potash  or  phos- 
phorus may  be  present  in  the  soil  in  great 
quantities,  it  is  useless  to  plants  unless  it  is 
soluble,  either  through  the  agency  of  water 
alone,  or  by  means  of  the  carbonic  acid  secreted 
by  the  roots  of  growing  plants.  The  question 
of  immediate  soil  fertility,  then,  depended  not 
on  how  much  of  a  given  element  was  present 
in  the  soil,  but  on  whether  or  not  it  existed  in 
soluble  form. 

The  natural  process  of  weathering,  that  is, 
the  action  of  the  natural  agencies  of  heat,  cold, 
sunlight,  etc.,  gradually  eif  ected  chemical  com- 
binations of  these  soil  minerals  with  bases  that 
rendered  them  soluble;  as  do  cultivation  and 
the  action  of  decaying  organic  manures. 

In  other  words,  the  available  mineral  ele- 
ments in  the  soil  are  being  liberated  auto- 
matically by  natural  forces  aided  by  man.    As 


THEORY    OF    SOIL    FERTILITY       189 

an  illustration,  the  soil  could  be  likened  to  a 
trust  fund,  of  which  only  the  interest  was 
available.  If  the  beneficiary  lived  faster  than 
his  means,  he  must  either  put  himself  in  debt, 
or  sit  down  and  wait  for  more  interest  to 
accrue. 

Liebig  announced  that  his  researches  ex- 
plained the  tonic  effects  on  the  soil  of  crop- 
rotation,  a  practice  which  had  been  established 
for  more  than  a  thousand  years  before  his  day. 
An  examination  of  the  ash  of  plants  showed, 
he  said,  that  certain  families  of  plants  require 
more  phosphorus  than  others,  while  other 
families  may  require  a  greater  percentage  of 
potash  or  nitrogen. 

Thus  single  cropping  might  reduce  the  avail- 
able nitrogen,  potash  or  phosphorus  content  of 
that  soil  so  low  as  to  render  the  soil  infertile 
for  a  particular  plant.  The  remedy  was  ob- 
vious. Seed  the  land  to  another  crop,  requir- 
ing less  of  one,  and  more  of  the  other  ele- 
ments. Thus  by  a  judicious  selection,  founded 
both  on  the  facts  gleaned  from  chemical 
analysis  of  the  ash  of  plants  and  on  experience, 
a  farmer  could  arrive  at  a  system  of  crop- 
rotation  that  would  render  his  soil  continuously 
productive,  at  a  certain  rate.     It  was  merely 


190      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

a  problem  of  restoring  the  balance,  giving  this 
or  that  mineral  opportunity  to  catch  up. 

The  practice  of  maintaining  fertility  by 
means  of  chemicals  is  of  course  the  logical 
sequence  of  such  a  theory.  If  a  growing  plant 
has  destroyed  the  balance  of  the  mineral 
nutrients  in  the  soil,  what  is  more  simple  than 
to  restore  that  balance  by  adding  the  required 
nutrients  so  that  all  crops  may  have  at  all 
times  their  optimum  amount  of  "available" 
food? 

The  following  quotations  from  Edward  B. 
Voorhees  (Fertilizers.  Fourth  ed.,  1902)  sets 
forth  the  established  schools  of  practice  in  the 
use  of  commercial  fertilizers  that  have  grown 
out  of  the  theories  of  Liebig: 

''Pages  182-185.— The  one  [system  of  fer- 
tilization] which  has  perhaps  received  the 
most  attention,  doubtless  largely  because  one 
of  the  first  presented,  and  in  a  very  attractive 
manner,  is  the  system  advocated  by  the  cele- 
brated French  scientist,  George  Ville.  This 
system,  while  not  to  be  depended  upon  ab- 
solutely, suggests  lines  of  practice  which, 
under  proper  restrictions,  may  be  of  very 
great  service.  In  brief,  this  method  assumes 
that  plants  may  be,  so  far  as  their  fertiliza- 
tion is  concerned,  divided  into  three  distinct 


THEORY    OF    SOIL    FERTILITY      191 

groups.  One  group  is  specifically  benefited 
by  nitrogenous  fertilization,  the  second  by 
phosphatic,  and  the  third  by  potassic.  That  is, 
in  each  class  or  group,  one  element  more  than 
any  other  rules  or  dominates  the  growth  of 
that  group,  and  hence  each  particular  element 
should  be  applied  in  excess  to  the  class  of 
plants  for  which  it  is  a  dominant.  In  this  sys- 
tem it  is  asserted  that  nitrogen  is  the  dominant 
ingredient  of  wheat,  rye,  oats,  barlej^  meadow 
grass,  and  beet  crops.  Phosphoric  acid  is  the 
dominant  fertilizer  ingredient  for  turnips, 
Swedes,  Indian  corn  (maize),  sorghum  and 
sugar  cane;  and  potash  is  the  dominant  or 
ruling  element  for  peas,  beans,  clover,  vetches, 
flax  and  potatoes.  It  must  not  be  understood 
that  this  system  advocates  only  single  ele- 
ments for  the  others  are  quite  as  important  up 
to  a  certain  point,  beyond  which  they  do  not 
exercise  a  controlling  influence  in  the  manures 
for  the  crops  for  the  three  classes.  This  spe- 
cial or  dominating  element  is  used  in  greater 
proportion  than  the  others,  and  if  soils  are  in 
a  high  state  of  cultivation,  or  have  been 
manured  with  natural  products,  as  stable 
manure,  they  may  be  used  singly  to  force  a 
maximum  growth  of  the  crop.     *     *     * 

"Another  system  which  has  been  urged, 
notably  by  German  scientists,  is  based  upon 
the  fact  that  the  mineral  constituents,  phos- 
phoric acid  and  potash,  form  fixed  compounds 


192      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

in  the  soil,  and  are,  therefore,  not  likely  to 
be  leached  out,  provided  the  land  is  con- 
tinuously cropped.  They  remain  in  the  soil 
until  used  by  growing  plants,  while  the 
nitrogen,  on  the  other  hand,  since  it  forms 
no  fixed  compounds  and  is  perfectly  soluble 
when  in  a  form  useful  to  plants,  is  liable  to 
loss  from  leaching.  Furthermore,  the  mineral 
elements  are  relatively  cheap,  while  the  nitro- 
gen is  relatively  expensive,  and  thus  the 
economical  use  of  this  expensive  element, 
nitrogen,  is  dependent  to  a  large  degree  upon 
the  abundance  of  the  mineral  elements  in  the 
soil.  It  is,  therefore,  advocated  that,  for  all 
crops  and  for  all  soils  that  are  in  a  good  state 
of  cultivation,  a  reasonable  excess  of  phos- 
phoric acid  and  potash  be  applied,  sufficient 
to  more  than  satisfy  the  maximum  needs  of 
any  crop,  and  that  the  nitrogen  be  applied  in 
active  forms,  as  nitrate  of  ammonia,  and  in 
such  quantities  and  at  such  times  as  will  in- 
sure the  minimum  loss  of  the  element  and 
the  maximum  development  of  the  plant. 

''Page  186. — Anotlier  system  of  fertilization 
is  based  upon  the  theory  that  the  different 
plants  should  be  provided  with  the  essential 
elements  in  the  proportions  in  which  they  exist 
in  the  plants,  as  shown  by  chemical  analysis. 
Different  formulas  are  therefore  recommended 
for  each  crop,  the  constituents  of  w^hich  are 
so  proportionate  as  to  meet  its   full  needs. 


THEORY    OF    SOIL    FERTILITY       193 

This  method,  if  care  be  taken  to  supply  an 
abundance  of  all  the  necessary  constituents, 
may  result  in  a  complete,  though  perhaps  not 
an  economical,  feeding  of  the  plant,  since  it 
assumes  that  a  plant  that  contains  a  larger 
amount  of  one  constituent  than  of  another 
requires  more  of  that  constituent  in  a  ferti- 
lizer than  of  the  others.  It  does  not  take 
into  consideration  the  fact  that  the  plant  which 
contains  a  larger  amount  of  one  element  than 
of  another  may  possess  a  greater  power  of 
acquiring  it  than  one  which  contains  a  smaller 
amount." 

But,  aside  from  the  possibility  of  maintain- 
ing the  fertility  of  the  soil  by  the  addition  of 
chemical  nutrients,  the  question  remains,  how 
long  will  the  soil  continue  to  produce  crops, 
by  means  of  its  innate  fertility?  Now,  the 
liberation  of  available  plant  food  by  weather- 
ing is  comparable  to  rate  of  interest  on  a  trust 
fund  in  an  interest-paying  bank  only  in  a 
measure.  A  trust  fund  in  a  bank  is  actually 
at  work  producing  additional  capital,  which 
it  pays  as  interest.  The  trust  fund  in  the  soil 
on  the  other  hand  is  at  work  liberating  a  por- 
tion of  the  capital  itself.  The  statement  that 
the  American  farmer  is  "mining"  the  soil  is  a 
familiar  one.     It  comes  from  this  conception 


194      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

of  the  nature  of  available  plant  food.  Every 
installment  of  "interest"  that  the  soil  liberates 
in  the  form  of  crops  draws  on  its  own  capital, 
and  when  it  has  run  its  course  the  soil  is  in  the 
condition  of  the  gold  mine  which  continues 
paying  a  5  per  cent,  dividend  until  the  last 
ounce  of  gold  is  mined. 

From  this  viewpoint  the  problems  of  deter- 
mining the  extent  of  soil  fertility  should  be 
simple.  No  matter  whether  the  potash  and 
phosphorus  found  in  the  soil  are  in  "available" 
form  or  not,  they  will  be  available  to-morrow 
or  the  next  day.  Sooner  or  later  every  gram 
of  plant-feeding  minerals  would  have  passed 
into  solution.  Then,  most  truly,  would  the 
soil  have  been  "mined"  of  its  fertility,  and 
would  possess  nothing  but  a  figurative  hole  in 
the  ground. 

It  is  easy  to  find  out  how  many  grams  or 
parts  per  million  of  any  one  of  the  "plant 
foods"  exist  in  a  given  soil.  Take  the  soil 
one,  two,  three,  or  ten  feet  deep,  according 
as  you  believe  the  plants  draw  their  food.  The 
usual  method  is  to  take  the  first  twelve  inches 
of  soil  and  subject  it  to  analysis.  Let  us  ex- 
amine a  series  of  specimen  figures,  to  illustrate. 
Hellriegel,  a  German  scientist  to  whom  is  at- 


THEORY    OF    SOIL    FERTILITY      195 

tributed  the  greatest  single  discovery  in  agri- 
culture in  a  century,  that  of  the  nitrogen- 
fixing  bacteria  of  leguminous  plants,  sampled 
the  fertile  alluvium  of  the  upper  Rhine  in 
Holland,  one  of  the  most  fertile  soils  in  the 
world,  and  he  found  it  contained  elements  of 
plant  food  as  follows,  in  an  acre  12  inches  deep 
and  weighing  3,500,000  pounds : 

Soluble  silicates 81,900  pounds 

Lime 143.220 

Potash 35,910 

Soda 68,920 

Ammonia 2,100 

Phosphoric  acid 16,310 

Sulphuric  acid 31,360 

To  produce  a  crop  of  barley  of  33  bushels 
to  the  acre,  he  calculated,  required  55  pounds 
of  potash  and  55  pounds  of  phosphoric  acid, 
with  other  minerals  in  proportion.  Of  nitro- 
gen were  required  54  pounds.  Then  by  simple 
division  we  find  that  this  richest  soil  in  the 
world  contained  enough  innate  fertility,  if 
liberated  by  natural  agencies,  to  produce  less 
than  38  full  crops  if  ammonia  only  is  con- 
sidered, 296  full  crops  if  phosphoric  acid  is 
considered,  and  653  crops,  as  to  its  potash  con- 
tent. This  particular  soil,  it  happens,  has  been 
cropped  for  the  better  part  of  one  thousand 


196      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

years.  The  records  are  fairly  complete  as  to 
what  it  has  grown  in  that  time.  By  simple 
arithmetic,  again  can  we  find  how  rich  that  soil 
was  in  plant  food,  available  and  unavailable, 
a  thousand  years  ago?  Apparently  we  can, 
if  we  have  faith  in  the  orthodox  doctrine  of 
soil  fertility. 

This  brings  us  back  home  to  the  late 
National  Conservation  Commission.  Analyze 
our  own  soils,  make  a  separate  analysis  for 
every  acre,  if  necessary.  It  is  no  greater  task 
than  the  Bureau  of  Soils  is  undertaking  now 
to  determine  the  cropping  qualities  of  our 
acres.  Take  either  nitrogen,  potash,  or  phos- 
phoric acid.  Not  all  of  them,  as  any  one,  par- 
ticularly the  lowest  one,  will  be  sufficient. 
Divide  this  figure  by  the  mineral  requisite  of 
the  staple  crops  grown  on  that  particular  soil, 
and  we  should  have  the  resources  of  that  soil 
blocked  out  as  absolutely  as  the  coal  in  a  mine. 

But  we  did  not  do  it.  The  Bureau  of  Soils, 
to  whom  the  question  of  soil  resources  was 
referred  by  the  Commission,  happens  to  be  a 
heretic  as  concerns  the  theory  of  Liebig, 
though,  as  we  have  already  hinted,  they  stand 
almost  alone  in  their  heresy. 

Instead,  it  was  suggested  that  our  soils  be 


THEORY    OF    SOIL    FERTILITY      197 

examined  and  compared  with  the  older  soils 
of  Europe.  The  suspicion  that  our  soils  were 
breaking  down  after  two  or  three  generations 
of  cropping,  and  that  the  European  soils  were 
increasing  in  productiveness  after  a  thousand 
years  of  cropping,  was  a  popular  superstition. 
Surely,  if  the  capacity  of  the  soil  is  so  simple 
a  thing  that  it  can  be  reduced  to  fractions,  an 
examination  of  the  older  soils  of  Europe  would 
reveal  that  fact. 

Accordingly,  thousands  of  samples  of  farm 
soils  were  secured  from  Europe  and  subjected 
to  analysis.  The  result  is  found  entire,  in 
Bulletin  57,  Bureau  of  Soils,  for  any  reader 
who  cares  to  pursue  this  element  of  the  sub- 
ject. 

A  result  rather  startling  to  those  who  believe 
in  the  book-keeping  theory  of  soil  fertility  was 
forced  upon  the  investigators.  In  mineral 
content  (which  was  the  only  problem  to  be 
solved)  they  found  no  appreciable  difference 
between  the  older  soils  of  Europe  and  our  own. 

Commenting  on  the  results  of  the  researches, 
Director  Milton  Whitney  said: 

"Two  points  will  be  mentioned  to  show  the 
futility  of  the  bookkeeping  system  of  estimat- 
ing the  future  resources  of  the  soil. 


198      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

"The  researches  of  the  several  experiment 
stations  throughout  the  world  and  the  inves- 
tigations of  our  engineers  on  the  amount  of 
material  carried  in  solution  and  in  suspen- 
sion in  our  principal  rivers  and  borne  by  the 
wind  establish  the  fact  that  loss  through  nat- 
ural leaching  and  erosion  removes  far  more 
mineral  plant  food  elements  than  do  culti- 
vated crops.*  In  cropping  soils,  therefore, 
and  removing  the  crop  from  the  land,  we  re- 
move an  inconsiderable  amount  of  mineral  ma- 
terial compared  with  normal  losses  to  which 
the  soil  is  adjusted  through  natural  laws. 

"The  second  point  opposed  to  this  book- 
keeping system  of  accounting  for  the  plant- 
food  constituents  is  that  in  a  small  majority 
of  analyses  reported  in  this  country  and 
abroad,  where  both  soils  and  subsoils  have  been 
examined,  the  upper  soil,  from  which  pre- 
sumably the  roots  of  annual  plants  take  most 
of  their  mineral  matter,  has  a  content  of 
potash  and  phosphoric  acid  higher  than  the 
subsoil. 

"From  the  meager  information  to  be  found 
in  the  works  of  the  early  agricultural  writers 
of  Greece  and  Italy  it  seems  probable  that 
the  yields  per  acre  obtained  at  the  present 
time  are  not  much  different  from  those  ob- 
tained in  the  earlier  historic  times.    There  are 

♦The  Mississippi  River  removes  enough  silt  annually  to  covet 
225,000  acres  one  foot  deep. 


THEORY    OF    SOIL    FERTILITY       199 

not  many  records  in  the  literature  of  yields 
per  acre  for  any  field,  farm,  or  country  going 
back  for  any  considerable  number  of  years. 
Official  estimates  of  yields  have  been  kept  by 
the  United  States  Government  and  many  of 
the  States  for  the  past  forty  years.  Similar 
statistical  estimates  have  been  kept  by  most  of 
the  European  countries  for  the  past  twenty  or 
thirty  years.  Beyond  this  the  information  is 
fragmentary  and  possibly  less  trustworthy. 

"In  the  consideration  of  data  of  this  kind 
it  would  at  first  sight  seem  more  valuable  to 
have  continuous  records  of  successive  yields 
of  a  single  field.  However,  the  yield  of  a 
State  is  probably  more  reliable  in  showing 
changes  in  productivity  because  it  combines  a 
great  number  of  individual  fields  and  averages 
the  results  of  all  the  individual  methods  used 
in  the  community. 

"When  the  yield  per  acre  for  a  State  or 
country  under  practically  constant  acreage  is 
shown  to  have  increased  during  a  long  period 
of  years  we  may  assume  that  the  productivity 
has  not  declined.  Much  of  this  increase  may 
result  from  improved  methods  of  agriculture, 
better  selection  of  seeds  and  crops,  or  the  in- 
troduction of  more  live  stock;  and,  for  the 
purpose  of  our  present  inquiry,  we  need  go 
no  further  to  explain  the  increase  or  main- 
tenance of  productivity. 

"There  are  two  matters,  however,  which 


200      THE   FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

should  be  considered  in  this  connection.  The 
first  is  the  question  of  commercial  fertilizers. 
If  the  productivity  of  the  soil  of  a  State  de- 
pends ultimately  and  literally  upon  our  re- 
turning an  equivalent  amount  of  plant-food 
constituents  to  the  soil  to  replace  that  re- 
moved by  the  crop,  then  the  life  of  the  nation 
will  ultimately  depend  upon  the  available  de- 
posits of  nitrates,  phosphates,  and  potash 
compounds.  It  is  clearly  impossible  with  the 
available  data  to  give  any  expression  of  the 
amount  of  such  replacement  which  has  been 
made  in  the  past,  but  from  what  we  know, 
so  far  as  the  actual  importation  of  mineral 
material  foreign  to  the  jparm  is  concerned,  it 
is  negligible. 

"The  use  of  commercial  fertilizers  is  not  old. 
The  potash  deposits  of  Germany  were  first 
worked  in  1862,  the  phosphate  deposits  of 
South  Carolina  in  1868.  Phosphates  were  dis- 
covered in  Florida  in  1888  and  in  Tennessee 
in  1894.  It  may  be  said  that  the  general  use 
of  commercial  fertilizers  began  in  the  United 
States  about  the  year  1865. 

"The  other  matter  which  should  receive  at- 
tention is  the  influence  of  material  in  the  form 
of  foodstuffs  imported  from  less  densely  set- 
tled countries  to  those  of  greater  population 
as  a  possible  source  of  introducing  foreign 
mineral  matter  to  maintain  the  productivity 
of  the  soil  of  the  older  and  more  densely  set- 


THEORY    OF    SOIL    FERTILITY      201 

tied  countries.  If  any  such  transference  of 
mineral  material  actually  takes  place  to  an 
extent  sufficient  to  maintain  or  increase  the 
productivity  of  more  densely  populated  coun- 
tries, then  it  is  but  reasonable  to  expect  that 
the  productivity  of  the  soil  of  the  more  re- 
cently settled  and  more  sparsely  settled  coun- 
tries from  which  foodstuffs  are  exported  would 
show  a  falling  off  in  productivity.  From  this 
point  of  view  the  soils  of  the  United  States 
might  be  expected  to  show  some  material  de- 
cline in  productivity  as  a  result  of  the  enor- 
mous amount  of  foodstuffs  exported,  while 
the  soils  of  Europe,  to  which  these  foodstuffs 
mainly  go,  should  show  a  corresponding  in- 
crease." 

"The  largest  average  yield  of  wheat  per 
acre  for  any  one  year  of  the  countries  above- 
named  for  the  period  reported  on  by  the  Bu- 
reau of  Statistics  is  as  follows: 

Largest  average  yield  of  wheat  in  different  European  countries  in  any 
year  covered  by  reliable  statistics 


Bushels 

Russia 11 . 4 

Spain 14 . 9 

Italy 15 . 4 

Servia 19.4 

Austria 20 . 2 

Hungary 21.8 

France 22.7 

Roumania 22 . 8 


Bushels 

Switzerland 25.9 

Sweden 28.0 

Germany 30.3 

Netherlands 33.7 

Belgium 35.1 

Great  Britain 35.8 

Ireland 37.8 

Denmark 44 . 7 


"The  largest  average  yield  of  wheat  for  any 
one  year  in  several  groups  of  States  in  the 


^02      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

United  States  for  forty  years,  as  compiled 
from  the  Bureau  of  Statistics'  records,  is  as 
follows : 

Largest  wheat  yield  in  any  year  for  forty  years  in  several  groups  of  States 

Bushels 
Virginia,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  and  Alabama  11.2 

Kentucky  and  Tennessee 14.3 

Texas  and  Arkansas 15.2 

Wisconsin,  Michigan,  Iowa,  and  Illinois 16.6 

Minnesota,  Nebraska,  Kansas,  and  Missouri 16.7 

Ohio,  West  Virginia,  and  Indiana 17.9 

New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  and  Maryland 19.7 

California 20.0 

Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois 20 . 2 

Oregon 21 . 1 

Maine,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  and  New  York 22.4 

"It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  soils  of  Europe 
have  been  occupied  for  agricultural  purposes 
for  one  thousand  to  two  thousand  years 
longer  than  those  of  the  United  States,  yet 
during  the  past  twenty-five  years  ten  out  of 
the  sixteen  countries  of  Europe  reported  upon 
have  produced  more  wheat  per  acre  than  any 
of  the  groups  of  States  in  the  United  States 
during  the  past  forty  years." 

The  National  Conservation  Commission 
never  went  further  in  its  attempt  to  block  out 
the  soil  resources  of  the  country.  The  report 
of  the  comparisons  of  the  soils  of  the  United 
States  and  those  of  Europe  (4,142  analyses 
being  included  in  detail)  was  printed  as  part 


THEORY    OF    SOIL    1 EKTILITY       203 

of  the  general  report  of  the  Commission  before 
its  untimely  end.  However,  other  organiza- 
tions and  individuals  have  gone  further,  and 
for  one  who  cares  to  figure  on  our  soil  resources 
according  to  Liebig  there  is  ample  material, 
gathered  by  competent  men. 

Dr.  Cyril  G.  Hopkins  of  Illinois  is  among 
those  who  have  reduced  the  exhaustion  of  soil 
fertility  to  a  matter  of  years.  We  quote  him 
because  of  his  undoubted  position  as  an  edu- 
cator in  the  agricultural  sciences,  and  his 
opinion  should  carry  weight.  In  addition  he 
is  the  spokesman  of  that  overwhelming  ma- 
jority among  our  scientists  who  stand  staunch 
in  their  belief  that  the  theory  of  Liebig  is  in- 
vulnerable, so  far  as  mineral  requirements  and 
resources  are  concerned. 

In  a  recent  article  (Country  Gentleman, 
Vol.  78,  'No.  3)  he  discusses  the  subject  briefly. 
First  he  enumerates  the  important  plant  foods. 
Carbon  and  oxygen,  he  saj^s,  are  taken  by  the 
plant  from  the  air  in  the  form  of  carbon 
dioxide,  through  the  breathing  pores,  located 
chiefly  on  the  under  side  of  the  leaves.  Hydro- 
gen is  derived  by  the  plant  from  the  water  it 
absorbs  through  its  roots.  These  three  ele- 
pients  constitute  the  larger  part  of  the  mature 


204      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

plant  (the  so-called  carbohydrates),  and  all 
are  constantly  being  interchanged  between  the 
plant  and  air,  or  water,  in  a  never-ending  cycle 
of  economy. 

Iron  is  a  fourth  element,  "but  the  amount 
required  by  plants  is  so  small,  and  the  amount 
contained  in  the  soil  is  so  large  that  soils  have 
never  been  known  to  become  deficient  in 
iron."  Sulphur  is  used  sparingly  by  plants, 
frequently  merely  tolerated.  In  addition  to 
the  supply  in  the  soil,  there  are  constantly  be- 
ing added,  by  rains  and  absorption,  the  sul- 
phurous gases  which  pass  into  the  air  on  com- 
bustion or  decay  of  organic  materials,  such  as 
coal,  wood,  grass,  leaves,  etc. 

To  quote  from  Doctor  Hopkins : 

"But  there  are  five  other  essential  elements 
of  plant  food  and  these  require  especial  con- 
sideration in  connection  with  permanent  soil 
fertility.  They  are  potassium,  magnesium, 
calcium,  phosphorus  and  nitrogen.  There  are 
also  five  important  points  to  be  kept  in  mind 
in  relation  to  each  of  these  elements :  the  soil's 
supply,  the  crop  requirements,  the  loss  by 
leaching,  the  methods  of  liberation,  and  the 
means  of  renewal. 

"The  neglect  of  one  or  more  of  these  impor- 
tant points  in  relation  to  one  or  more  of  the 


THEORY    or    SOIL    FERTILITY      205 

five  elements  has  reduced  the  fertihty  of  most 
cultivated  soils  of  the  United  States,  has 
greatly  impoverished  the  older  farm  lands  and 
brought  agricultural  abandonment  to  millions 
of  acres  in  the  original  thirteen  States.  On 
the  other  hand,  intelligent  attention  to  these 
same  points  will  bring  restoration  and  high 
productive  power  to  such  lands." 

Leaving  out  of  the  discussion,  for  the  time 
being,  nitrogen,  Doctor  Hopkins  continues: 

"Of  the  four  important  mineral  elements, 
potassium  is  by  far  the  most  abundant  in  com- 
mon soils.  Thus,  as  an  average  of  ten  residual 
soils  from  ten  different  geological  formations 
in  the  eastern  part  of  the  United  States,  two 
million  pounds  of  subsurface  soil  were  found 
to  contain:  Potassium,  37,860  pounds;  mag- 
nesium, 14,080  pounds;  calcium,  7,810  pounds; 
phosphorus,  1,100  pounds. 

"Even  the  depleted,  and  to  some  extent 
abandoned,  gently  undulating  upland,  'Leon- 
ardtown  loam,'  which  was  farmed  for  gene- 
rations and  which,  according  to  the  surveys 
of  the  Federal  Bureau  of  Soils,  covers  41  per 
cent,  of  St.  Mary's  County,  Maryland,  and 
more  than  45,000  acres  of  Prince  George's 
County — still  contains  in  two  million  pounds 
of  surface  soil— corresponding  to  the  plowed 
soil  of  an  acre  about  6  2-3  inches  deep:    Po- 


206      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

tassium,  18,500  pounds;  magnesium,  3,480 
pounds;  calcium,  1,000  pounds;  phosphorus, 
160  pounds. 

"The  brown  silt  loam  prairie  soil  of  the  early 
Wisconsin  glaciation  is  the  most  common  type 
of  the  greatest  soil  area  in  the  Illinois  Corn 
Belt.  Two  million  pounds  of  this  surface  soil 
contain  as  an  average:  Potassium,  36,250 
pounds;  magnesium,  8,790  pounds;  calcium, 
11,450  pounds;  phosphorus,  1,190  pounds. 

"The  older  gray  silt  loam  prairie,  the  most 
extensive  soil  of  Southern  Illinois,  contains 
in  two  million  pounds  of  soil:  Potassium, 
24,940  pounds ;  magnesium,  4,690  pounds ;  cal- 
cium, 3,420  pounds;  phosphorus,  840  pounds. 

"These  data  represent  averages  involving 
hundreds  of  soil  analyses,  and  they  emphasize 
the  fact  that  normal  soils  are  rich  in  potassium 
and  poor  in  phosphorus.  This  is  to  be  ex- 
pected, for  most  soils  are  made  from  the  earth's 
crust,  and  normal  soils  should  bear  some  re- 
lation in  composition  to  the  average  of  the 
earth's  crust,  which  contains  in  two  million^ 
pounds  49,200  pounds  of  potassium  and  2,200 
pounds  of  phosphorus,  as  shown  by  the 
weighted  averages  of  analyses  involving  about 
two  thousand  samples  of  representative  rocks, 
reported  by  the  United  States  Geological 
Survey. 

"The  plant  food  required  for  one  acre  of 
wheat  yielding  50  bushels,  one  acre  each  of 


THEORY    OF    SOIL    FERTILITY      207 

corn  and  oats  yielding  100  bushels,  and  one 
acre  of  clover  yielding  four  tons,  includes  for 
the  total  crops :  Potassium,  320  pounds ;  mag- 
nesium, 68  pounds;  calcium,  168  pounds; 
phosphorus,  77  pounds. 

"If  only  the  grain,  including  a  yield  of  4 
bushels  an  acre  of  clover  seed,  is  considered, 
the  straw,  stalks  and  hay  being  returned  to 
the  soil — either  directly  or  in  farm  fertilizer- 
then  the  loss  per  acre  from  four  years  of  crop- 
ping as  above  would  be  as  follows:  Potas- 
sium, 51  pounds;  magnesium,  16  pounds;  cal- 
cium, 5  pounds;  phosphorus,  42  pounds. 

"The  average  annual  loss  by  leaching  from 
good  soils  in  humid  sections  is  known  by  the 
results  of  many  analyses  to  be  about  as  fol- 
lows per  acre:  Potassium,  10  pounds;  cal- 
cium, 300  pounds ;  phosphorus,  2  pounds. 

"The  average  annual  loss  of  magnesium  in 
drainage  water  from  good  soils  is  probably 
30  pounds  or  more  an  acre,  but  the  data  thus 
far  secured  are  inconclusive  with  respect  to 
that  element." 

Thus,  by  arithmetic,  it  would  appear  accord- 
ing to  these  figures  that  such  a  soil  as  tlie 
Leonardstown  loam  would  support  only  two 
cycles  of  rotation,  or  eight  years'  cropping,  so 
far  as  its  phosphorus  in  the  upper  strata  is 
concerned. 


208      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

The  same  simple  computation  can  be  applied 
to  any  particular  soil  specimen.  By  this  means 
it  has  been  variously  computed  that  the  aver- 
age agricultural  soil  in  the  United  States  will 
be  reduced  to  low  fertility  in  from  seventy- 
five  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  years — a  small 
period  of  time  when  compared  with  the  thou- 
sand years  which  the  soils  of  western  Eu- 
rope have  been  farmed,  and  more  than  four 
thousand  years  in  China,  Japan  and  Corea. 

It  is  not  pertinent  to  the  discussion  at  this 
point  to  give  the  rates  of  fertilizing  which 
Doctor  Hopkins  advises  by  means  of  chemi- 
cals. On  normal  soils  he  believes  that,  of  the 
mineral  elements,  only  phosphorus  is  deficient. 
On  abnormal  soils,  such  as  drained  swamp 
lands  and  some  sandy  soils,  the  potash  element 
too  is  deficient.  This  is  conceded  by  all  inves- 
tigators in  the  science  of  soil  fertility.  But 
Doctor  Hopkins  believes  that  even  on  normal 
soils,  when  hay,  straw,  potatoes  and  root  crops 
and  market  vegetables  are  sold  off  the  farm, 
potassium  must  eventually  be  purchased  and 
returned  to  the  soil.  Lime  is  deficient  in  some 
soils,  and  all  investigators  agree  that  in  special 
instances  it  must  be  returned  to  the  soil  in  the 
form  of  ground  limestone.     They  disagree, 


THEORY    OF    SOIL    FERTILITY      209 

however,  on  the  function  of  Hme  in  the  process 
of  plant  growth. 

One  more  quotation  from  Doctor  Hopkins 
will  conclude  the  presentation  of  the  generally 
accepted  theory  of  the  plant  food  requirements 
of  plants  and  its  "availability": 

"Probably  there  has  never  been  a  greater 
waste  of  time  and  effort  in  the  name  of  science 
than  in  the  endeavor  to  determine  the  'avail- 
able' plant  food  in  soils.  The  almost  uni- 
versal assumption  has  been  that  the  plant  food 
in  the  soil  exists  in  two  distinct  conditions, 
'available'  and  'unavailable'  and  that  the 
determination  of  the  'available'  plant  food 
would  reveal  both  the  crop-producing  power 
of  the  soil  and  the  fundamental  fertilizer  re- 
quirements for  the  improvement  of  the  soil 
for  crop  production. 

"After  ascertaining  the  total  stock  of  plant 
food  in  the  plowed  soil,  the  next  important 
question  is  not  how  much  is  'available,'  but 
rather  how  much  can  be  made  available  during 
the  crop  season.  In  other  words,  we  must 
make  plant  food  available  by  practical  meth- 
ods of  liberation,  by  converting  it  from  in- 
soluble compounds  into  soluble  and  usable 
forms;  for  plant  food  must  be  in  solution  be- 
fore the  plant  can  take  it  from  the  soil.  For 
the  present,  space  is  taken  only  to  emphasize 
the  value  of  decaying  organic  manures  in  the 


210      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

important  matter  of  making  plant  food  avail- 
able; and  attention  is  also  called  to  the  fact 
that  the  decomposition  of  the  organic  matter 
of  the  soil — including  both  fresh  materials 
and  old  humus — is  hastened  by  tillage  and  by 
underdrainage,  which  permit  the  oxygen  of 
the  air  to  enter  the  soil  more  freely,  oxygen 
being  a  most  active  agent  in  nitrification  and 
other  decomposition  processes  of  organic  mat- 
ter, as  well  as  in  the  more  common  combustion 
of  wood,  coal,  and  so  forth." 

Do  soils  wear  out? 

The  hypothesis  of  Liebig  and  those  who 
have  followed  in  his  path  and  accepted  his 
theories  with  the  utmost  literalness  say  un- 
equivocally that  they  do.  Neither  is  it  a  re- 
mote contingency  in  their  eyes ;  it  is  immediate. 
They  take  the  onus  for  the  lack  of  bounty  in 
the  soil  from  the  shoulders  of  man  and  shift 
it  to  Providence.  Providence  has  been  par- 
simonious with  the  elements  of  the  bread 
and  meat  we  would  eat.  Nature  has  pro- 
vided two  storehouses  from  which  we  may 
extract  food.  One  is  the  soil  itself.  The 
other  is  the  mines  of  plant  food  minerals  which 
we  may  scatter  in  the  soil,  when  the  land  shows 
signs  of  exhaustion.  They  have  computed,  as 
we  have  seen,  how  long  the  soil  will  continue 


THEORY    OF    SOIL    FERTILITY      211 

to  feed  us,  if  left  to  itself.  They  have  not  yet 
taken  the  pains  to  compute  the  extent  of  the 
mines  of  potash,  phosphorus  and  calcium. 
Why  not?  We  have  already  begun  to  mine 
these  concentrated  plant-foods  in  great  quan- 
tities, in  response  to  their  urgings,  and  en- 
couraged, apparently,  at  least,  by  the  beneficial 
results  to  be  obtained  in  the  immediate  crop 
by  such  a  system.  It  should  be  just  as  neces- 
sary to  know  how  much  chemical  plant  food 
will  be  ultimately  available  in  the  form  of  com- 
mercial fertilizers  as  how  much  coal,  iron  or 
gold  we  can  extract  from  the  earth. 

Any  way  one  examines  the  hypothesis,  car- 
ried to  its  logical  extension,  it  is  a  theory  of 
inevitable  doom.  Southern  Illinois  has  enough 
phosphorus  to  grow  ordinary  crops  for  seventy 
years,  we  are  told.  The  Leonardstown  Loam, 
they  tell  us,  is  already  in  process  of  active 
abandonment.  How  long,  then,  before  the 
earth's  crust  will  become  a  sterile  waste,  de- 
void of  living  things  because  the  means  for 
sustaining  life  have  been  consumed? 


CHAPTER   VII 

THE  SOIL  AS  AN  IMMUTABLE 
ASSET 

*'The  soil  is  the  one  indestructible,  im- 
mutable asset  of  the  Nation.  It  is  the  one  re- 
source that  cannot  be  exhausted;  that  cannot 
be  used  up.  It  may  be  impaired  by  abuse, 
but  not  destroyed." 

This  is  the  pronunciamento  of  the  federal 
Bureau  of  Soils  of  the  Department  of  Agri- 
culture at  Washington.  It  was  first  published 
in  1908,  and  was  met  with  a  storm  of  criticism. 

There  is  no  middle  ground.  The  hypothesis 
put  forward  by  Director  Milton  Whitney, 
Doctor  Frank  K.  Cameron,  Doctor  Oswald 
Schreiner,  Edmund  C.  Shorey,  and  other 
scientists,  with  the  authority  of  the  United 
States  government  at  their  back,  states  flatly 
that  soils  do  not  wear  out.  On  the  other  hand 
the  whole  system  of  teaching  in  our  agricul- 
tural colleges  is  founded  on  the  theory  that 

212 


THE    SOIL    AS    AN    ASSET  213 

soils  do  wear  out.  The  counsels  of  the  agri- 
cultural press,  which  is  an  influence  that  gets 
closer  to  the  farmer  than  any  other,  official 
or  otherwise,  likewise  teaches  that  the  farmer 
must  feed  the  soil  in  proportion  as  his  soil 
feeds  his  crops. 

It  is  not  surprising,  in  view  of  the  weight  of 
authority  against  the  new  hypothesis,  which 
would  rob  the  old  system  of  the  very  keystone 
of  its  arch,  that  this  new  theory  should  be  met 
with  the  most  violent  opposition.  Jeremiah, 
the  farmer  in  the  field,  has  not  yet  heard  of 
this  cheerful  theory  which  takes  the  burden  of 
unproductive  soils  from  the  shoulders  of 
Providence  and  shifts  it  to  the  shoulders  of  the 
farmer  himself.  He  has  not  heard  of  it  for 
several  reasons.  In  the  first  place  his  neigh- 
bor's son  who  returns  from  college  equipped 
to  enter  the  profession  of  teaching  the  science 
of  agriculture  is  a  product  of  the  prevailing 
school. 

In  the  second  place  the  scientists  of  the  fed- 
eral Bureau  of  Soils  have  as  yet  made  no  ef- 
fort to  prepare  the  hypothesis  in  popular  form. 
They  have  published  many  scientific  treatises, 
giving  the  data  of  their  experiments  and  re- 
searches in  technical  form.    These  publications 


gl4      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

are  available,  it  is  true,  in  limited  editions,  but 
they  are  for  sale  at  the  cost  of  printing  and 
binding.  The  American  farmer  is  too  accus- 
tomed to  get  his  literature  for  nothing  to  take 
kindly  to  paying  for  something  which,  the 
chances  are,  he  cannot  understand  in  its  pres- 
ent form. 

Having  demolished  the  keystone  of  the  arch 
in  the  orthodox  explanation  of  the  fertility  of 
the  soil,  it  became  incumbent  upon  the  scien- 
tists of  the  Bureau  of  Soils  to  furnish  other 
explanations  of  fertility  or  the  lack  of  it  in 
soils.  They  do  not  deny  that  some  soils  are 
more  fertile  than  others. 

They  do  not  deny  that  the  use  of  commercial 
fertilizers,  which  has  grown  to  be  an  enormous 
industry  in  the  last  fifty  years,  is  without  good 
results. 

They  assert  that  the  minerals — potash  and 
phosphorus — are  at  all  times  present  in  the 
normal  soil  in  inexhaustible  quantities,  and 
that  they  are  "available"  as  plant  food  at  all 
times,  and  in  sufficient  quantities  for  maxi- 
mum crops. 

They  do  not  take  the  position  that  the  plant 
food  in  commercial  fertilizers  is  not  as  efficient 
as  the  plant  food  abeady  in  the  soil  in  infinite 


THE    SOIL    AS    AN    ASSET  215 

quantities.  They  do  assert,  however,  that  the 
function  of  commercial  fertilizers  is  some- 
thing infinitely  more  complex  than  the  theory 
of  Liebig  as  taught  to-day  would  lead  one  to 
suppose;  and  that  of  all  the  profound  in- 
fluences the  accepted  chemical  fertilizers  exert 
on  the  soil,  that  of  supplying  "plant  food," 
as  such,  is  probably  among  the  least  impor- 
tant. 

The  old  theory  of  infertility  being  due  to 
insufficient  minerals  in  available  form  has  been 
so  thoroughly  accepted  as  a  sufficient  explana- 
tion that  the  nature  of  the  organic  constituents 
of  the  soil,  and  their  influence  in  affecting  fer- 
tility, were  spheres  of  research  that  were  neg- 
lected for  a  long  time.  The  federal  Bureau 
of  Soils  is  the  first  body  of  scientists  in  the 
world  to  devote  systematic  study  to  this  side 
of  the  question,  and  as  the  result  of  their  re- 
searches they  have  established  the  fact  that  the 
organic  element  is  quite  as  important  as  the 
mineral  element  in  explaining  fertility.  The 
part  played  by  molds,  bacteria,  enzymes,  "the 
unseen  flora  and  fauna  of  the  soil,"  and  won- 
derfully complex  organic  compounds,  either 
tonic  or  toxic,  in  their  effects  on  plants,  has 
been  the  subject  of  this  investigation,  and  a 


216      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

number  of  theories  have  been  put  forth,  which, 
no  matter  whether  they  stand  or  fall  under  the 
attack  of  further  research,  are  of  prime  interest 
and  importance  to  the  farmer  of  to-day  and 
the  farmer  of  to-morrow.  It  is  in  this  phase 
of  research  that  the  Bureau  of  Soils  is  now 
expending  its  energies.  The  work  has  not  yet 
reached  a  point  where  they  are  willing  to  as- 
sert definitely  just  what  part  these  important 
factors  play  in  soil  fertilitj^  With  the  in- 
veterate caution  of  true  scientists,  these  men 
are  as  yet  more  given  to  postulates  than  to 
definite  conclusions  as  to  the  results  of  their 
work  in  this  field. 

To  begin  with,  early  in  the  course  of  their 
work,  the  Americans  succeed  in  laying  low,  for 
all  time,  the  fallacy  that  a  chemical  analysis  of 
a  soil,  as  to  its  mineral  constituents,  is  of  value 
in  determining  its  cropping  abilities. 

The  farmer  in  the  field  has  not  learned  this 
truth  yet,  but  the  experiment  stations  of  the 
world  have  united  in  accepting  it.  Regardless 
of  whether  one  views  the  mineral  element  as 
something  definite  and  limited  as  to  quantity 
or  not,  the  statement  that  any  particular  soil 
contains  so  many  pounds  of  the  various  ele- 
ments to  the  acre  12  inches  deep  is  not  worth 


THE    SOIL    AS    AN    ASSET  217 

the  paper  it  is  written  on  so  far  as  telling  what 
that  soil  will  produce  at  any  given  time. 

The  old  school  accept  this  as  true  because 
they  know  that  such  an  examination  gives 
them  only  the  bulk  of  the  minerals  present, 
with  no  indication  of  how  great  a  percentage 
may  be  "available,"  as  they  say.  What  is 
"unavailable"  to-day  may  be  available  to- 
morrow or  next  week  or  next  month,  accord- 
ing as  a  variety  of  causes  operate  to  liberate 
the  "plant  food." 

The  new  school  reject  such  an  analysis  on 
the  ground  that  the  mineral  content  is  never 
in  a  stable  condition.  It  is  constantly  being 
added  to,  or  subtracted  from,  by  profound 
forces  active  at  all  times.  They  do  not  bother 
themselves  with  the  query  whether  or  not  the 
"plant  food"  is  available,  as  they  believe,  if  the 
minerals  themselves  are  present,  the  plant  food 
is  available  in  fixed  proportions  at  all  times. 
Whether  or  not  the  plant  can  make  use  of 
them  is  another  matter,  determined  by  the 
proper  functioning  of  the  plant  itself,  and  the 
soil  itself. 

What  is  of  utmost  importance,  however,  is 
the  physical  condition  of  the  soil.  This  affects 
its  immediate  cropping  qualities.     It  tells  the 


218      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

farmer  if  his  soil  is  in  proper  condition  to 
work  at  the  highest  efficiency  provided  the 
other  influences  are  working  smoothly. 
Broadly  speaking,  a  soil  consisting  of  fine  soil 
grains  is  more  productive  than  a  soil  that  is 
coarse  and  lumpy,  for  the  simple  reason  that 
fine  grains  retain  moisture  to  the  best  advan- 
tage, and  permit  water  and  air  to  circulate 
freely. 

Therefore  we  can  say  without  stepping  on 
anybody's  toes  that  the  size  of  the  soil  grains 
which  regulate  air  and  water  supply  is  more 
important  than  chemical  composition. 

All  scientists  in  the  problem  of  soil  fertility 
agree  in  the  beginning  as  to  what  constitutes 
the  principal  food  of  plants.  The  elements 
enumerated  in  the  last  chapter  in  the  quota- 
tion from  the  writings  of  Doctor  Cyril  G. 
Hopkins  are  the  accepted  list. 

Carbon,  oxygen  and  hydrogen  drawn  from 
the  air  and  water  are  one  important  branch. 
All  schools  believe  they  exist  and  are  available 
in  infinite  quantities. 

Nitrogen,  according  to  Sir  William  Crookes, 
is  becoming  so  scarce  that  the  world  must  stop 
growing  wheat  in  another  fifty  years.    How- 


THE    SOIL    AS    AN    ASSET  219 

ever,  this  doleful  prediction  has  been  swept 
aside  as  untenable  by  accepted  theories.  The 
air  we  breathe  is  four-fifths  nitrogen,  and 
Hellriegel  in  1886  was  able  to  isolate  a  bac- 
terium from  the  roots  of  clover,  whose  func- 
tion is  to  extract  nitrogen  from  the  air  and 
make  it  available  for  plants.  It  is  estimated 
that  upward  of  35,000  tons  of  nitrogen  hangs 
suspended  over  every  acre,  and,  were  there  no 
other  means  of  putting  it  in  the  soil  than  the 
bacteria  of  legumes,  there  need  be  no  fear  that 
any  farm  acre,  under  proper  systems  of  culti- 
vation and  rotation,  will  ever  be  deficient  in 
this  element. 

There  are  other  means  of  extracting  nitro- 
gen from  the  air.  There  are  other  flora  and 
fauna  of  the  soil  which  make  it  their  main  task 
to  extract  it  from  the  air  and  manufacture  it 
in  the  form  of  nitrates.  Mr.  A.  D.  Hall  of 
the  Rothamsted  station,  the  most  famous  ex- 
periment station  in  the  world,  tells  (Chemical 
News,  Vol.  106)  how  a  soil  that  was  permitted 
to  run  wild  for  23  years  was  found  to  have 
gained  92  pounds  of  nitrogen  per  acre  each 
year.  As  nitrogen  as  a  commercial  fertilizer 
is  worth  upward  of  18  cents  a  pound,  the  im- 
portance of  this  fact  can  be  seen.     In  this 


220      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

particular  case,  the  nitrogen  was  added  by  the 
azotobacter  present  in  the  soil,  bacteria  which 
feed  on  the  decaying  carbohydrates  to  be 
found  in  suitable  form  in  many  plants.  This 
discovery  suggested  a  pretty  experiment  to  the 
investigators  of  Rothamsted.  They  used 
starch  and  sugar  (which  contain  none  of  the 
so-called  mineral  plant  foods)  with  wonderful 
results.  Starch  and  sugar  are  carbohydrates 
and  thus  furnished  the  necessary  food  in  con- 
centrated form  for  the  busy  bacteria. 

The  experiment  all  but  failed,  because  of 
a  peculiar  accident  which  illustrates  the  many 
complex  forces  that  must  be  taken  into  account 
by  the  soil  expert.  The  first  dressing,  consist- 
ing of  a  ton  of  sugar  to  the  acre,  gave  no 
results  whatever.  In  fact  the  crop  of  barley 
which  succeeded  the  application  was  a  total 
failure.  It  was  suggested  that  possibly  the 
sugar  "fertilizer"  was  applied  at  a  time  of  year 
when  the  tiny  micro-organisms  were  inactive. 
It  had  been  applied  in  winter.  A  second 
test,  with  the  sugar  applied  in  the  warm 
spring  months  just  previous  to  seeding, 
resulted  in  a  greatly  increased  yield  of 
barley. 

It  was  further  found  that  the  decaying  roots 


THE    SOIL    AS    AN    ASSET  221 

of  turnips  exercised  the  same  effect,  as  these 
roots  are  highly  carbonaceous.  This  explained 
one  of  the  benefits  of  plowing  under  "swedes," 
a  practice  almost  as  old  as  agriculture  it- 
self. 

"When  neither  clover  is  grown,  nor  the  roots 
of  turnips  put  back,"  says  Doctor  Plall  in 
commenting  on  his  experiments,  "the  soil  is 
losing  nitrogen;  when  both  take  place  during 
a  rotation,  the  average  removals  from  the  soil 
become  as  high  as  35  bushels  of  wheat,  34 
bushels  of  barley  and  2  tons  of  clover  hay,  yet 
the  soil  is  gaining  in  fertility  though  no  ex- 
traneous nitrogen  is  being  introduced." 

Speaking  of  the  farming  of  the  future  in 
the  light  of  this  discovery,  Doctor  Hall  is  led 
to  say: 

"The  only  way  is  to  bring  the  flora  and 
micro-fauna  of  the  soil  under  control.  Partial 
sterilization  effects  this;  such  antiseptics  as 
chloroform,  toluene,  etc.,  eliminate  certain 
organisms  which  check  the  useful  bacteria. 
Heating  to  boiling  for  two  hours  doubles  pro- 
ductivity and  is  practical  in  greenhouses. 

''The  problem  of  the  future  is  to  domesticate 
the  unseen  flora  and  fauna  of  the  soil,  the 
useful  races  to  he  encouraged,  the  noxious 
races  suppressed" 


222      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

In  the  light  of  this  discovery,  sugar,  starch, 
chloroform,  and  other  chemicals  are  fertilizers. 
So  is  boiling  water.  How  much  "plant  food" 
do  these  substances  contain,  according  to  the 
theory  of  Liebig?  The  followers  of  Liebig 
value  "fertilizers"  only  in  accordance  with 
how  much  "plant  food"  they  contain.  In  the 
strict  sense  of  the  term,  these  materials  contain 
no  "plant  food."  Sugar  and  starch  are  made 
up  of  carbon,  hydrogen  and  oxygen  only.  Yet 
adding  them  to  the  soil  increases  produc- 
tivity. 

Even  without  the  aid  of  the  "domesticated" 
bacteria  and  fungus  growths,  however,  the 
farmer  need  never  run  short  of  the  supply  of 
nitrates  required  for  food.  If  land  becomes 
too  valuable  to  grow  clover  in  rotation,  or  to 
turn  under  carbonaceous  green  crops  to  rot 
and  feed  the  azotohacter,  man  has  devised  a 
means  of  extracting  nitrogen  from  the  air 
mechanically.  A  current  of  air  is  '  directed 
against  an  electric  arc,  and  the  nitrogen  be- 
comes oxidized.  This  nitrogen  can  be  gathered 
by  spraying  the  oxidized  air  against  lime,  with 
which  the  nitrate  enters  into  combination. 
This  discovery  was  not  due  to  the  needs  of  the 
farmer.    As  we  have  said,  the  requirements  of 


THE    SOIL    AS    AN    ASSET  223 

nitrates  for  war  are  many  times  greater  than 
those  for  peace;  and  chemists  seeking  a  new 
source  of  nitrogen  for  explosives  hit  on  the 
electric  arc  as  the  means.  This  invention  has 
already  come  into  use  agriculturally  in  Nor- 
way, where  only  1.3  per  cent,  of  the  land  is 
susceptible  to  farming,  and  therefore  cannot 
be  spared  as  a  nitrogen  factory  itself.  The 
government  is  utilizing  many  thousands  of 
electrical  horse  power,  generated  by  mountain 
streams,  for  this  purpose.  Here  is  a  form  of 
"commercial  fertilizer,"  then,  that  is  not  futile. 
Yet  we  have  just  seen  that  the  average  farmer 
can  attain  the  same  result  in  his  fields  auto- 
matically by  proper  rotations,  or  adding  de- 
caying organic  compounds  which  contain  no 
nitrogen  in  themselves,  but  are  merely  the  food 
of  microscropic  creatures  that  manufacture 
nitrates. 

It  will  be  readily  comprehended,  then,  that 
the  element  nitrogen,  upon  which  Liebig  laid 
especial  stress,  and  which  Sir  William  Crookes 
thought  to  be  the  most  elusive  and  scarce  of 
all,  is  always  present  in  sufficient  quantities  in 
all  farm  soils,  providing  only  that  the  farm- 
ing is  carried  on  according  to  accepted  tradi- 
tions.     Science  has   nothing  to   do  with  it. 


THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

Science  merely  explains  a  condition  in  this 
instance. 

The  two  schools  separate  here. 

The  established  school  teaches  that  potash, 
phosphorus  and  calcium  are  not  only  limited 
in  ultimate  quantity,  but  enter  soluble  com- 
binations so  slowly  that  they  must  be  added 
in  soluble  form  to  maintain  fertility. 

The  new  school  says  that  these  three  ele- 
ments are  not  only  present  in  inexhaustible 
quantities,  but  are  at  all  times  soluble,  no 
matter  in  what  form  they  may  exist. 

The  parting  of  the  ways  comes  with  the 
meaning  of  the  word  "available."  Both  agree 
that  plant  food  must  be  in  solution  to  be  made 
use  of  by  plants. 

What  is  soluble? 

Everything  is  soluble,  in  everything  else, 
say  the  scientists  of  this  day.  It  is  merely  a 
matter  of  degree. 

A  statement  that  gold  is  soluble  in  air  would 
probably  be  laughed  to  scorn  by  many.  Yet 
that  gold  is  soluble  in  ordinary  air  is  a  fact 
recognized  by  all  metallurgists  and  to  such 
an  extent  that  only  recently  it  was  seriously 
suggested  that  ordinary  weighing  machines 
such  as  are  used  in  the  federal  assay  offices 


THE    SOIL    AS    AN    ASSET  225 

are  sensitive  enough  to  weigh  the  gold  lost  in 
this  way  over  a  course  of  months  in  any  con- 
siderable bulk  of  metal. 

Gold  is  soluble  in  lead,  and  lead  is  soluble 
in  gold.  This  fact  can  be  demonstrated  in  any 
laboratory.  Place  two  bars,  one  of  gold  and 
the  other  of  lead,  in  contact  with  each  other, 
and  raise  the  temperature  to  300  or  400  de- 
grees F.  In  the  course  of  a  few  hours  it  will 
be  found  that  minute  particles  of  gold  and 
lead  have  penetrated  the  two  bars  and  respond 
readily  to  the  usual  reagents. 

Ordinary  glass  is  more  soluble  in  water  than 
is  generally  supposed.  Water  standing  in  a 
tmnbler  gradually  dissolves  silicates,  but  in 
minute  quantities.  However,  if  one  take  the 
same  tumbler  and  grind  it  up  into  flour-like 
particles,  so  as  to  increase  the  surface  pre- 
sented to  the  action  of  the  water  millions  on 
millions  of  times,  it  will  be  found  that  the 
glass  enters  readily  into  solution.  One  can 
take  such  a  solution  after  a  few  hours  and 
evaporate  it  to  dryness  and  weigh  the  residue 
of  silicates.  It  amounts  to  three  per  cent., 
nearly  as  much  as  ordinary  bichloride  of 
mercury;  yet  if  any  one  would  venture  the 
assertion  that  glass  is  as  soluble  as  mercury 


226      THE  FARMER   OF  TO-MORROW 

he  would  not  be  believed  by  the  unscientific 
audience.  The  fact  is  that  glass  enters  so 
readily  into  solution  that  this  item  must  be 
taken  into  consideration  in  all  delicate  labora- 
tory analyses.  Otherwise  the  presence  of  sili- 
cates in  the  test  solution  could  not  be  ex- 
plained. 

One  more  instance — ^it  is  a  well  known  fact 
that  soft  metals,  such  as  pewter,  lead,  etc., 
dissolve  brass  when  the  brass  is  applied  as  a 
plating.  Unless  the  object  is  first  subjected 
to  a  plating  of  nickel,  the  brass  is  soon  drunk 
up  by  the  greedy  soft  metal.  Plated  goods 
"wear."  It  is  always  a  problem  how  much 
of  the  plating  is  actually  worn  off,  and  how 
much  is  absorbed  by  the  metal  used  as  a 
base. 

What  application  have  these  scientific 
truths  to  the  fortunes  of  Jeremiah,  the  farmer 
of  to-morrow? 

They  strike  at  the  very  root  of  the  theory 
which  actuates  the  lever  of  his  fortunes. 

Thus  he  is  taught  that  potash  and  phos- 
phorus are  not  soluble  in  the  original  form  in 
which  they  exist  in  the  soil.  They  must  be 
subjected  to  the  processes  of  weathering,  be 
broken   down   and    forced   to   combine   with 


THE    SOIL    AS    AN    ASSET  227 

radical  bases — turned  into  "soluble  salts"  be- 
fore they  can  be  utilized  by  plants. 

What  if  it  were  true  that  the  weathering 
process  is  not  necessary?  What  if  it  were  true 
that  ordinary  potash  and  phosphorus  are 
capable  of  entering  into  solution  in  sufficient 
strength  to  feed  plants  as  fast  as  plants  could 
make  use  of  this  mineral  ''plant  food  "? 

Such  is  actually  the  fact  if  one  may  have 
confidence  in  the  results  obtained  in  experi- 
ments by  the  Bureau  of  Soils  chemists. 

Furthermore,  these  experiments  seem  to  es- 
tablish the  fact  that  the  absorptive  powers  of 
the  ordinary  soil  are  such  that  no  matter  how 
much  soluble  salts  in  the  form  of  commercial 
fertilizers  is  added  the  strength  of  the  solution 
present  in  the  soil  is  always  constant.  It  is 
beyond  the  power  of  the  farmer  to  change  the 
balance  of  the  plant  food  solution  which  Na- 
ture herself  establishes  and  maintains  inexor- 
ably. 

Here  is  a  simple  experiment  illustrating  the 
point.  Take  a  sample  of  any  farm  soil,  and 
extract  its  soluble  salts  by  agitating  the  soil 
in  distilled  water.  Heat  the  water  if  you 
choose,  let  it  remain  in  contact  with  the  soil 
grains  an  hour,  10  hours  or  100  hours.    Then 


228      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-INIORROW 

analyze  the  supernatant  liquid.  Set  down  in 
black  and  white  how  much  potash  and  phos- 
phorus the  water  contains. 

Next,  take  another  sample  of  the  same  soil, 
and  "dress"  it  with  commercial  fertilizers  in 
their  most  soluble  form.  Mix  them  thoroughly 
with  the  soil,  and  let  the  mixture  stand  for 
some  time  to  insure  the  soil  moisture  acting  on 
the  chemicals  added. 

Then  treat  this  "fertilized"  soil  in  exactly 
the  same  way  you  treated  the  first  sample. 
Extract  all  the  soluble  "plant  food"  possible 
with  distilled  water  for  the  same  number  of 
hours.  Then  analyze  that  water.  The  result 
is  surprising. 

The  two  analyses  will  be  practically  the 
same.  There  is  no  more  potash  or  phosphorus 
in  the  second  solution  than  the  first,  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  you  have  "fed"  this  soil  with 
these  elements  in  their  most  soluble  form. 
You  cannot  recover  these  salts  by  solution. 
The  soil  has  seized  upon  them  and  retained 
them  as  its  own,  and  will  liberate  them  only 
at  a  definite  rate. 

It  may  be  asked  in  this  connection — what 
element  of  fertility  does  the  farmer  add  to  his 
soil  when  he  applies  mineral  salts?     Has  he 


THE    SOIL    AS    AN    ASSET  229 

increased  the  "available"  plant  food  of  his 
acres?  The  foregoing  experiment  on  his  own 
soil  would  prove  that  the  addition  of  salts  of 
potash  and  phosphorus  has  not  effected  any 
additional  concentration  in  the  soil  solution; 
and  it  is  an  established  fact  that  a  plant  can- 
not extract  food  from  the  soil  imless  that  food 
is  in  solution. 

This  experiment  suggested  a  new  world  of 
experiment  to  the  investigators.  The  prob- 
lem of  why  soluble  salts  cannot  be  extracted 
from  the  soil  by  water  is  something  aside  from 
the  discussion  at  this  point.  The  mere  fact 
that  they  cannot  is  of  first  importance,  coupled 
of  course  with  the  fact  that  the  concentration 
of  the  soil  solution  remains  practically  con- 
stant, no  matter  how  much  soluble  salt  may  be 
in  the  soil. 

It  is  objected  in  this  connection  that  the 
test  is  not  fair,  because  the  first  sample  of  soil 
surely  contained  "soluble"  or  "available" 
minerals  innately,  and  it  was  these  that  entered 
into  solution  to  saturation. 

In  answer  to  this  objection,  the  experiment 
can  be  conducted  not  with  soil  itself,  but  with 
rock-forming  minerals.  They  can  be  obtained 
from  any  museum  collection.    The  rock-form- 


230      THE  FARMER   OF  TO-MORROW 

ing  minerals  that  make  up  our  soils  are  prac- 
tically the  same  the  world  over,  so  the  experi- 
ment holds  good  for  broad  conditions.  Take 
these  ordinary  rocks  and  grind  them  in  a 
mortar  until  they  are  as  fine  as  the  soil  par- 
ticles themselves.  How  fine  this  should  be  can 
be  determined  by  the  number  of  particles  re- 
quired to  form  a  linear  inch.  In  our  clay  soils, 
the  particles  number  5,000  and  over;  in  silt, 
500  to  5,000;  very  fine  sand,  250  to  500;  fine 
sand,  100  to  250. 

Thus  a  cubic  inch  of  clay  would  contain 
125,000,000,000  particles.  This  type  of  soil 
is  an  ordinary  one.  By  a  calculation  it  is  sim- 
ple enough  to  determine  how  much  greater 
surface  it  would  present  to  the  soluble  action 
of  water  than  if  the  clay  were  a  solid  cube  of 
one  inch  dimensions.  Apply  the  parallel  of 
the  solubility  of  glass  here. 

Such  a  test  actually  was  made  by  Frank  K. 
Cameron  and  James  M.  Bell  (The  Mineral 
Constituents  of  the  Soil  Solution,  Bulletin  30, 
Bureau  of  Soils ) ,  and  prolonged  over  a  course 
of  months.  It  was  conducted  by  means  of  an 
ingenious  electrical  contrivance  which  insured 
a  continuous  flow  of  water  over  the  rock 
particles. 


THE    SOIL    AS    AN    ASSET  231 

The  density  of  the  solution  thus  obtained 
practically  remained  constant  after  the  first 
leaching,  and  was  almost  identical  in  its  con- 
tent of  phosphoric  acid  and  potash  with  a  solu- 
tion obtained  by  leaching  the  soil  itself.  An- 
other method  even  more  exact  is  by  measuring 
the  electrical  resistance  of  distilled  water  as  it 
leaches  through  rock  particles  or  a  sample  of 
soil.  Continued  experiments  by  this  method, 
too,  show  that  the  percentage  of  "plant  food" 
entering  solution  remains  practically  constant. 

The  theory  that  all  soils  contain  "plant 
food"  in  inexhaustible  quantities,  and  that 
these  minerals  are  at  all  times  available  by 
solution  or  hydrolysis,  was  not  suggested 
originally  by  the  scientists  of  the  Bureau  of 
Soils.  It  was  first  put  forth  as  a  possibility 
by  Samuel  W.  Johnson.  ("How  Crops  Feed," 
1884.)  In  a  work  treating  with  the  general 
phases  of  soil  fertility  he  details  a  number  of 
experiments  showing  that  successive  and  sep- 
arate leachings  of  a  soil  sample  gave  practi- 
cally uniform  results. 

Professor  Milton  Whitney  shows  (Soils  of 
the  United  States,  Bulletin  55,  Bureau  of 
Soils)  that,  in  the  average  soil  solution  ob- 
tained  by   contact   with   water   and   the   soil 


232      THE   FARMER  OF   TO-MORROW 

grains,  there  are  25  parts  per  million  of  potash 
and  10  parts  of  phosphoric  acid.  The  results 
he  obtained  did  not  vary,  even  though  one 
sample  was  found  to  contain  30,000  parts  of 
potash  reserve,  and  another  120,000;  and  one 
soil  contained  5,000  parts  phosphoric  acid  re- 


CHART  SHOWING  PHOSPHATES  RECOVERED  FROM  SOILS  IN  EIGHT  STATES- 


From  BvUetin  S6,  Bureau  of  SoiU,  Prof.  F.  H.  King. 

serve  and  the  second  20,000.  These  results  are 
again  almost  identical  with  experiments  con- 
ducted under  actual  field  conditions  in  eight 
states  by  the  late  Professor  F.  H.  King  of 
Wisconsin.  In  a  single  leaching  by  distilled 
water  he  recovered  from  3  to  9  parts  per 
million  of  phosphates.  ( Investigations  in  Soil 
Management,  Bulletin  26,  Bureau  of  Soils, 
p.  51.) 


THE    SOIL    AS    AN    ASSET  233 

These  experiments  established  one  con- 
clusion, i.  e.,  that  the  rate  at  which  plant  food 
enters  solution  in  the  soil — is  available,  in 
other  words — is  fixed  within  narrow  limits  and 
that  it  always  tends  toward  an  equilibrium 
as  the  plant  extracts  its  "food."  Thus  con- 
tinuous leachings  do  not  rob  the  soil  of  its 
capacity  for  furnishing  fresh  solutions  of  fixed 
densities  and  the  addition  of  highly  soluble 
fertilizer  salts,  such  as  muriate  of  potash,  or 
ammonium  phosphate,  does  not  seem  to  affect 
the  density  of  the  solution.  The  soil  merely 
absorbs  the  excess,  holds  it  in  reserve. 

A  solution  of  10  parts  per  1,000,000  is  al- 
most infinitesimal,  yet  it  is  sufficient  to  support 
plant  growth,  as  has  been  shown  by  hundreds 
of  experiments.  Average  soil  solutions  cover- 
ing thousands  of  experiments  give  about  27-3 
parts  of  potash  and  8.5  parts  of  phosphoric 
acid.  Do  such  low  concentrations  sustain  and 
promote  plant  life  ? 

Undoubtedly  they  can,  and  actually  do. 

Many  years  ago  it  was  found  that  mature 
crops  of  good  yield  could  be  grown  in  well 
water  containing  only  18  parts  of  potash  and 
2  parts  of  phosphoric  acid.  And  very  satis- 
factory growth  of  wheat  was  obtained  from 


234      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

Potomac  River  water,  which  was  found  to  con- 
tain only  7  parts  of  potash.  Johnson  tells  of 
an  experiment  with  well  water  which  contained 
but  1%  parts  per  ten  million  of  phosphoric 
acid,  and  notes  that  this  solution  gave  twice 
as  much  grain  as  a  solution  from  field  soil. 

In  actual  field  tests  in  the  growing  of  crops 
there  is  no  room  for  wonder  that  plants  thrive 
when  their  nutrients  are  supplied  at  so  slow 
a  rate.  The  roots  are  constantly  extracting  the 
soluble  minerals  from  the  solution  and  re-solu- 
tion is  going  on  continually.  This  has  sug- 
gested the  query  to  many  investigators  of  how 
dilute  a  solution  may  be  before  plants  lose  the 
power  of  feeding  from  it.  There  are  certain 
plants  which  extract  iodine  from  sea  water  and 
store  in  it  their  tissues  in  sufficient  quantities 
to  make  its  extraction  profitable  in  a  com- 
mercial way.  Starch  added  to  a  solution  is  a 
delicate  test  for  the  presence  of  iodine,  so  deli- 
cate indeed  as  to  give  positive  results  with  one 
part  in  300,000.  But  the  amount  of  iodine  in 
sea  water  is  so  small  that  it  does  not  respond 
to  the  starch  test.  In  an  experiment,  sea 
water  was  evaporated  to  one  one-hundredth  of 
its  former  bulk — that  is,  the  solution  was  con- 
centrated one  hundred  times.    Still  the  chemist 


THE    SOIL    AS    AN    ASSET  235 

was  unable  to  get  a  reaction  of  iodine  in  the 
concentrated  solution.  This  seems  to  prove 
beyond  doubt  that  plants  actually  do  extract 
iodine  from  sea  water  containing  less  than  one 
part  iodine  in  30,000,000.  In  much  the  same 
way  the  gigantic  submarine  plant,  kelp,  ex- 
tracts potash  from  sea  water  in  enormous 
quantities.  It  has  recently  been  seriously  pro- 
posed that  kelp  will  become  an  important 
source  of  our  future  potash  supply. 

In  spite  of  the  fact,  however,  that  plants 
can,  and  actually  do,  make  use  of  their  food  in 
these  dilute  solutions,  a  mere  scientific  demon- 
stration is  of  no  value  to  Jeremiah,  the  Farmer 
of  To-morrow — unless  it  can  be  proved  at  the 
same  time  that  such  dilute  solutions  are  capa- 
ble of  producing  crops  in  paying  quantities. 

If  the  plant  in  either  the  test  solution  or  in 
actual  field  conditions  merely  sustains  growth 
the  experiment  is  useless.  If  on  the  other 
hand  it  can  be  shown  that  the  normal  rate  of 
solution  of  these  supposedly  insoluble  minerals 
is  capable  of  producing  bountiful  crops  then 
the  secret  is  of  tremendous  economic  impor- 
tance. 

The  promulgators  of  the  new  hypothesis  are 


236      THE   FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

able  to  go  even  farther  than  this  demand. 
They  are  able  to  prove  that  plants  actually  at- 
tain their  best  growth  at  these  figures. 

Potash  at  25  parts  per  million  and  phos- 
phoric acid  at  10  parts  is  not  only  a  sufficient, 
but  an  optimum  concentration.  The  tables 
(Bulletin  70,  Bureau  of  Soils)  on  page  237 
illustrate  the  point. 

In  connection  with  these  tables  it  should  be 
explained  that  the  solutions  used  contained 
soluble  salts  of  the  three  elements  in  distilled 
water — nitrogen,  potash  and  phosphoric  acid. 
Where  onlj'^  two  of  these  salts  were  used  it  was 
found  in  many  cases  that  the  plants  attained 
as  great  a  growth  as  where  the  optimum  quan- 
tity of  the  missing  element  was  added.  This 
would  seem  to  nullify  the  results,  except  for 
one  interesting  fact  developed — ^that  plants 
grown  without  any  one  of  the  three  elements, 
but  with  a  sufficiency  of  the  other  two,  de- 
veloped peculiar  pathological  qualities  that 
would  not  be  tolerated  in  actual  farming  con- 
ditions. 

From  the  table  showing  results  with  potash 
it  would  appear  that  the  best  results  in  grow- 
ing seedlings  was  attained  when  the  nutrient 
solution  contained  between  24  and  32  parts  of 
potash  to  the  million. 


THE    SOIL    AS    AN    ASSET  237 

SHOmNG  THE  RESULTS  OBTAINED   FOR  POTASH 

(K2O)   IN  THE   CULTURES  CONTAINING 

DIFFERENT  AMOUNTS  (Page  91): 

Potash  content  Green  weight 

K2O  of  plant 

parts  per  million  grams 

80 1 .  106 

72 1 .  922 

64 2.661 

56 2.890 

48 3.222 

40 3.600 

32 3.929 

24 3.877 

16 3.538 

8. 3.172 

The  table  shows  a  decided  falling  off  in  the 
productiveness  of  this  solution  when  a  concen- 
tration of  56  parts  is  reached,  and  in  the  cul- 
ture containing  80  parts  the  plant  produced 
less  than  one-third  the  green  weight  it  was 
able  to  produce  with  from  24  to  48  parts. 

The  table  giving  the  results  of  phosphoric 
acid  experiments  is  equally  instructive.    Thus : 

SHOWING  THE  RESULTS  OBTAINED  FOR  PHOSPHORIC 

ACID    (P2O5)   IN  THE  SOLUTIONS  CONTAINING 

DIFFERENT  AMOUNTS  (Page  87): 

Phosphorus  Green  weight 

as  P2O5  of  plant 

parts  per  million  grams 

80 0.648 

72 1 .  226 

64 1 .  983 

56 2.580 

48 3.045 

40 3.340 

82 3.295 

24 3.308 

16 3.558 

8 3.640 


238      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

Here  we  find  the  concentration  of  the  phos- 
phate element  of  plant  food  producing  the 
best  growth  when  it  is  only  8  parts  per  million. 
At  56  parts  the  slowly  declining  line  takes  a 
sharp  drop,  until  at  80  the  "crop"  produced  in 
these  solutions  was  less  than  one-fifth  that  of 
8,  although  the  available  plant  food  was  pres- 
ent in  ten  times  the  qiiantity. 

The  results  of  these  experiments  seem  to 
establish  one  point  beyond  doubt — that  Nature 
herself  has  provided  a  definite  ratio  at  which 
she  liberates  the  mineral  food  of  plants,  and 
that  this  ratio  is  fixed.  Furthermore,  if 
the  above  experiments  are  worth  anything 
they  prove  that  the  plant  has  adapted  itself  to 
this  fixed  ratio,  in  much  the  same  way  as  man 
has  adapted  himself  to  three  meals  a  day,  and 
that  any  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  experi- 
menter to  vary  this  ratio,  even  within  very 
narrow  limits,  is  disastrous  to  the  plant,  results 
in  "crop  failure." 

These  facts  seem  to  verify  themselves  in 
the  laboratory.  Do  the  same  conditions  ac- 
tually prevail  in  farming?  Does  the  soil  pre- 
sent the  same  peculiarities  as  a  laboratory  test 
solution? 

Naturally,   in   an   hypothesis   so   much   at 


THE    SOIL    AS    AN    ASSET  239 

variance  with  the  established  teachings,  the 
scientists  who  "stand  pat"  on  the  Liebig  theory 
say  they  do  not. 

This  brings  us  back  to  the  question  of  what 
becomes  of  the  soluble  salts  in  the  commercial 
fertilizers  which  we  add  to  the  soil  in  order,  so 
we  are  told,  to  increase  the  amount  of  "avail- 
able" plant  food. 

The  experiment  of  adding  these  chemicals 
to  the  soil  and  trying  to  extract  them  again 
by  distilled  water  seems  to  prove  that  we  have 
not  affected  the  ratio  of  liberation  in  the  least. 
What  has  become  of  this  plant  food?  In  an 
actual  test,  4,000  parts  of  very  soluble  potash 
was  mixed  with  1,000,000  parts  of  soil.  Yet 
distilled  water  extracted  only  25  parts  at  a 
time.  It  seemed  impossible  to  raise  the  con- 
centration of  this  solution  no  matter  how  long 
the  water  was  left  in  contact  with  the  soil. 
So  with  phosphoric  acid. 

The  soil  grains  absorbed  the  salt. 

The  absorptive  power  of  the  soil  is  a 
phenomenon  that  has  been  observed  for  many 
years.  As  far  back  as  1859  (American  Jour- 
nal of  Science  and  Arts),  Johnson  put  it 
thus: 


240      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

"The  soil,  speaking  in  the  widest  sense,  is 
then  not  only  the  ultimate  exhaustless  source 
of  mineral  (fixed)  food  of  vegetation,  but  is 
the  storehouse  and  conservatory  of  this  food, 
protecting  its  resources  from  waste  and  too 
rapid  use." 

In  1879  the  same  author  (How  Crops 
Feed)  said: 

"Those  bodies  which  are  most  rare  and  pre- 
cious to  the  growing  plant  are  by  the  soil  con- 
verted into  and  retained  in  a  condition  not  of 
absolute,  but  of  relative  solubility,  and  are 
kept  available  to  the  plants  by  the  continued 
circulation  in  the  soil  of  the  more  abundant 
saline  matters." 

If  red  ink  is  passed  through  soil  it  is  no 
longer  red  ink.  It  is  clear  water,  so  avid  are 
the  soil  grains  for  certain  elements.  If  nitrate 
of  silver  is  passed  through  finely  divided  char- 
coal the  solution  that  leaches  out  consists  of 
nitric  acid,  and  with  a  glass  one  can  discover 
fine  spangles  of  silver  in  the  charcoal.  The 
absorptive  power  of  sand  was  used  in  Bacon's 
day  as  a  means  of  extracting  salt  from  sea 
water.  The  commercial  use  of  this  property 
is  common  in  our  everyday  life.     We  refer 


THE    SOIL    AS    AN    ASSET  24-1 

to  such  absorptive  substances  as  filters.  This 
power  is  not  equally  potent  for  all  substances. 
The  soil  exercises  a  selective  property,  as,  for 
instance,  it  has  a  greater  avidity  for  potash 
than  for  chlorine. 

The  property  is  founded  on  the  fact  that 
the  surface  of  solids,  such  as  soil  grains,  has 
a  tremendous  attraction  for  solutions.  Sup- 
posing a  metal  ball  to  be  composed  of  an  in- 
finite number  of  molecules,  each  exerting  an 
attraction  for  each  other,  the  forces  acting 
on  the  molecules  in  the  center  of  the  ball  are 
equal  on  all  sides,  therefore  the  molecule  can 
move  about  freelv.  Those  molecules  on  the 
surface,  however,  are  being  drawn  only  toward 
the  center  of  the  ball,  as  the  attraction  of  the 
surrounding  air  is  much  less  than  the  interior 
of  the  ball.  We  are  not  accustomed  to  regard 
a  film  of  water  on  a  plate  of  glass  as  possess- 
ing unusual  dynamic  qualities,  yet  it  is  being 
attracted  to  the  glass  by  a  great  pressure. 

Thus,  the  film  of  soil  moisture  surrounding 
a  soil  grain  is  held  as  a  tight  skin  around  the 
grain  under  a  pressure  that  is  variously  esti- 
mated at  between  6,000  and  25,000  atmos- 
pheres. If  it  were  10,000  atmospheres,  the 
pressure    exerted    would    be     (Bulletin    55, 


24>2      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

Bureau  of  Soils,  p.  11)  at  the  rate  of  150,000 
pounds  per  square  inch,  or  approximately  fif- 
teen times  the  muzzle  pressure  of  a  12-inch 
gun.  It  is  in  this  film  surrounding  the  soil 
grains  (which,  we  have  seen,  actually  exist  at 
less  than  1-125  billionths  of  an  inch  in  diam- 
eter) that  the  plant  food  solutions  are  held 
in  great  concentration  due  to  pressure.  It 
is  this  property  of  soils  that  holds  the  excess 
"plant  food"  and  liberates  it  to  the  circulating 
soil  waters  at  a  definite  rate.  Thus  the  soil 
conserves  its  own  resources  by  a  method  al- 
most beyond  the  conception  of  man. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

THE  EVIDENCE  OF  HISTORY  AND 
RESEARCH 

Granting,  for  the  purpose  of  argument, 
that  the  mineral  plant  food  in  the  soil  is  avail- 
able at  all  times  to  plants  in  optimum  quan- 
tities, and  that,  generally  speaking,  the  rate  of 
solution  cannot  be  hastened  or  retarded,  we 
are  still  face  to  face  with  the  proposition  that 
there  is  an  end  to  the  supply  of  these  minerals. 

Doctor  Hopkins,  as  we  have  seen,  states 
that  the  earth's  crust  contains  about  49,200 
pounds  of  potassium  and  2,200  pounds  of 
phosphorus  to  2,000,000  pounds. 

It  is  estimated  that  an  acre  one  foot  deep 
of  soil  in  New  York  State  contains  35,000 
pounds  of  potassium  and  2,500  pounds  of 
phosphorus,  and  20,000  pounds  of  lime. 

Does  not  this  constitute  a  definite  bank  ac- 
count of  mineral  fertilitj'-,  paying  interest  to 
the  farmer  in  the  form  of  crops  out  of  its 

248 


244      THE   FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

capital?  It  is  so  regarded  by  those  who  urge 
the  use  of  mineral  fertilizers  only  as  "plant 
food."  We  must  believe  this  if  we  believe 
that  our  soils  are  wearing  out,  as  we  are  being 
told  on  every  hand.  If  our  soils  contain  only 
sufficient  quantities  of  any  of  these  ingredients 
to  feed  us  one  hundred  or  two  hundred  years, 
surely  it  is  a  matter  of  national  concern. 

Here  again  the  promulgators  of  the  new 
hypothesis  take  the  opposite  ground.  They 
believe  that  the  normal  agricultural  soil  will 
never  be  deficient  in  minerals.  They  have  a 
different  conception  of  the  nature  of  the  soil 
from  the  old  school. 

Briefly  they  tell  us  "We  are  not  farming 
the  same  soil  as  our  fathers  farmed." 

It  is  changing  continually. 

The  study  of  the  broad  science  of  geology 
did  not  make  much  progress  until  the  scien- 
tists recognized  the  fact  that  geological 
changes  are  as  much  due  to  quiet  forces  that 
are  at  all  times  at  work  as  to  great  cataclysms 
of  Nature.  The  blowing  of  the  winds,  erosion, 
the  profound  movement  of  ground  waters,  and 
a  hundred  other  subtle  agencies  are  at  all  times 
working  their  miracles.  They  are  too  subtle, 
except  in  rare  instances,  to  be  measured  in  a 


EVIDENCE    OF    HISTORY  245 

year  or  a  generation,  but  over  thousands  or 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  years  they  accom- 
plish enormous  results. 

These  same  agencies  are  operating  at  all 
times  in  the  soil.  The  most  important  to  the 
the  farmer  of  to-day  is  the  movement  of 
ground  waters. 

Water  exists  in  the  soil  in  four  different 
forms:  the  water  of  hydration,  hygroscopic 
water,  capillary  water,  and  gravitational  water. 
The  water  of  hydration  is  that  which  combines 
chemically  with  the  minerals  as  hydrates  and 
is  not,  as  a  rule,  available  for  plants. 

Hygroscopic  water  is  that  which  adheres  to 
the  soil  grains  as  films  and  contains  the  min- 
eral nutrients  of  plants  under  high  pressure. 

Capillary  water  is  that  which  moves  freely 
between  the  soil  grains  by  capillary  attrac- 
tion. This  is  the  principal  source  of  food  for 
plants,  the  "carrier"  as  it  were  of  the  food. 

Gravitational  water  is  that  which  escapes  to 
the  depths,  as  excess  beyond  the  ability  of  the 
soil  to  retain  it,  and  in  the  best  farming  prac- 
tice is  carried  off  by  means  of  drains. 

The  point  to  remember  in  this  connection 
is  that  the  water  which  goes  down — the  gravi- 
tational water  following  a  rain — is  not  of  so 


^46      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

much  immediate  importance  to  the  plant  as 
the  water  that  comes  up — the  capillary  water. 
Gravitational  water  passes  quickly  through  a 
well-drained  friable  soil,  seeking  the  water 
level  below.  This  may  be  a  matter  of  inches 
or  feet,  according  to  the  nature  of  the  par- 
ticular soil.  After  a  heavy  rainstorm  the 
drains  are  filled  not  by  water  from  above, 
but  by  the  rising  of  the  so-called  water-table 
from  below. 

Drain  waters  for  this  reason  contain,  as  a 
rule,  much  less  "plant  food"  than  do  capillary 
waters,  having  remained  in  contact  with  the 
soil  for  only  a  brief  period.  Yet,  if  one  ad- 
heres to  the  theory  that  the  mineral  resources 
of  the  soils  are  so  limited  in  quantity  as  to 
be  exhaustible  in  the  history  of  man  on  earth, 
he  must  also  subscribe  to  the  belief  that  the 
loss  from  leaching  through  drainage  is  in  time 
enormous.  We  have  already  quoted  an  esti- 
mate as  to  the  amount  of  fertility  lost  in  this 
way — potassium,  51  pounds;  magnesium,  16 
pounds;  calcium,  5  pounds,  and  phosphorus, 
42  pounds  per  acre  in  four  years'  time.  Ac- 
cording to  many  estimates,  these  quantities 
are  sufficient  to  grow  a  crop ;  and,  thus,  every 
fourth  year  the  equivalent  of  five  crops  have 


EVIDENCE    OF    HISTORY  247 

been  taken  from  the  soil  by  the  combination 
of  cropping  and  drainage. 

Extend  this  calculation  not  over  four  years 
or  forty  years,  but  over  four  hundred  or  four 
thousand  years  and  one's  amazement  is  that 
we  find  any  minerals  left  in  the  soil  at  all. 
Leaching  has  been  going  on  for  ages,  in  vir- 
gin prairies  as  well  as  on  cultivated  land.  So 
even  gravitational  water,  with  its  low  content 
of  plant  food,  becomes  an  enormous  item  in 
time,  if  we  subscribe  to  the  bookkeeping 
theory. 

Gravitational  water  becomes  capillary  water 
when  evaporation  begins  at  the  surface.  It 
begins  an  upward  journey.  It  does  not  travel 
now  by  the  broad  highways  that  hurried  it 
downward  when  the  upper  soil  was  too  satu- 
rated to  hold  it. 

Instead,  it  moves  from  grain  to  grain  of  soil, 
picking  up  its  ration  of  solutes  from  the  film 
water  surrounding  each  grain  as  it  passes.  Its 
mode  of  passage  can  best  be  illustrated  by 
water  flowing  across  a  screen  door.  This 
water,  as  we  frequently  have  opportunity  of 
observing,  moves  in  squares,  blocking  off  the 
meshes  of  the  screen.  So  the  capillary  water 
deep  in  the  earth  moves  among  the  interstices 


M8      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

of  the  soil  grains,  picking  up  its  modicum  of 
"food"  in  its  flight.  So  it  is  the  water  that 
comes  up  from  the  depths  and  not  the  water 
that  goes  down  from  the  surface  that  feeds 
the  plant. 

As  this  water  approaches  the  surface,  evapo- 
ration becomes  more  and  more  rapid.  Each 
molecule,  when  its  time  comes,  disengages 
itself  from  the  mineral  "food"  it  has  picked 
up  in  passage — (its  modicum  of  25  parts  per 
million  of  potash  and  10  parts  of  phosphorus, 
etc.) — and  escapes  into  the  air  as  vapor,  leav- 
ing behind  its  parcel  of  "food"  in  the  upper 
strata  of  soil. 

Who  will  say  that  an  examination  of  the 
mineral  content  of  the  upper  twelve  inches  of 
soil  gives  any  true  indication  of  that  acre's 
future  store  of  mineral  fertility? 

The  content  is  being  constantly  augmented 
by  the  evaporating  capillary  water,  and,  on 
the  other  hand,  it  is  being  constantly  "swept" 
by  the  gravitational  water,  which,  in  its  flight 
to  the  lower  level,  picks  up  a  part,  but  not 
all,  of  the  "parcel  of  food"  that  had  previously 
been  carried  to  the  top.  Thus  we  see  that  the 
"number  of  pounds  of  potash  and  phosphoric 
acid" — by  which  some  would  measure  the  life 


EVIDENCE    OF    HISTORY  219 

of  a  soil — is  not  a  constant  quantity  at  all, 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  is  changing  continually 
even  during  infinite  sections  of  a  single  second. 

This  is  one  method  by  which  the  movement 
of  ground  water  changes  our  soils  so  that  "we 
are  not  farming  the  same  soils  as  our  fathers." 
A  simple  experiment  demonstrates  the  truth 
of  this  statement.  A  column  of  soil  contained 
in  a  bottomless  tube  several  feet  high  is  made 
to  rest  in  a  basin  containing  common  salt  in 
solution.  Then  the  air  is  agitated  gently  at 
the  surface  of  the  column,  so  as  to  induce 
evaporation — simulating  the  winds  that  blow, 
in  fact.  In  only  a  short  time  an  analysis  of 
the  top  layer  of  soil  reveals  the  fact  that  mole- 
cules of  salt — common  table  salt — have  been 
transported  through  several  feet  of  soil  and 
abandoned  at  the  surface  by  the  elusive, 
vaporizing  molecule  of  capillary  moisture. 

The  movement  of  soil  waters  is  profound. 
No  one  has  ever  "fetched  bottom"  in  gravita- 
tional water  in  the  soil.  Whether  the  re- 
sources of  the  upper  soil  are  being  fed  by  water 
columns  measured  in  feet  or  in  miles  no  one 
can  say.  It  is  probable,  however,  that  the 
movement  is  continuous  from  a  great  depth. 

These  facts  emphasize  the  necessity  of  keep- 


250      THE  FARINIER  OF  TO-MORROW 

ing  the  soil  in  good  tilth,  as  the  saying  goes, 
in  other  words,  maintaining  the  most  favorable 
condition  for  the  movement  both  of  gravita- 
tional and  capillary  vv^ater.  These  two  factors 
are  adjusted  to  a  great  extent  by  accepted 
methods  of  cultivation  and  drainage,  while, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  action  of  the  waters  of 
hydration  and  hygroscopic  water  are  largely 
bej^ond  the  control  of  man.  The  movement  of 
capillary  water  is  influenced  by  cultivation, 
which  conserves  moisture,  by  establishing  a 
dry  mulch  as  a  cover  to  the  soil  to  prevent 
the  escape  of  the  water  burdened  with  its  food 
particles  and  holds  it  for  use  by  the  roots  of 
plants. 

How  much  of  a  factor  the  blowing  of  soils 
may  be  in  altering  their  composition  and 
texture  is  difficult  to  determine.  It  is  safe  to 
assume  that  it  is  much  more  important  in  all 
climates  than  is  usually  imagined.  In  the 
Great  Plains  area,  under  peculiar  conditions, 
the  blowing  of  soils  is  such  an  important  factor 
that  efforts  are  now  being  made  to  acclimatize 
trees  to  form  wind-breaks.  On  the  Mary- 
land peninsula,  where  many  of  the  roads  are 
constructed  of  crushed  limestone,  farms  ad- 
jacent to  highways  never  get  "sour" — which 


EVIDENCE    OF    HISTORY  251 

is  another  way  of  saying  that  the  lime  present 
in  the  soil  is  always  sufficient  to  overcome  and 
neutralize  the  acid  effects  due  to  decaying 
vegetation.  Here  the  farmers  have  their  soils 
"limed"  continuously  by  the  dust  from  the 
highways. 

It  seems  evident  that  if  the  physical  texture 
of  a  given  soil  is  favorable  to  the  movement 
of  ground  waters,  that  soil  will  be  forever 
"fed"  from  the  inexhaustible  storehouse  that 
Nature  has  provided.  Limited,  in  a  broad 
sense,  yes;  but  attempts  to  sound  the  day  of 
doom  seem  as  futile  as  trying  to  empty  the 
boundless  ocean  with  a  tin  cup. 

"The  soil  is  the  one  indestructible  immutable 
asset  of  the  Nation.  It  is  the  one  resource 
that  cannot  be  exhausted;  that  cannot  be  used 
up.  It  may  be  impaired  by  abuse,  but  not 
destroyed." 

The  logical  extension  of  the  theory  of  "im- 
mutable assets"  is  that  all  soils  are  equally 
fertile.  This  is  true,  in  a  general  way,  on 
normal  soils,  soils  of  a  texture  which  is  ac- 
cepted as  necessary  in  farming  practice.  It 
is  easy  enough  to  note  exceptions  without  end. 
These  exceptions  only  go  to  prove  the  truth 
of  the  theory,  as  the  trite  saying  runs. 


252      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-:\IORROW 

However,  the  statement  that  all  soils  are 
equally  fertile  must  be  qualified  by  the  addi- 
tional statement — only  in  so  far  as  the  pres- 
ence of  minerals  affects  fertility. 

The  opponents  of  the  new  hypothesis  have, 
in  many  instances,  seized  upon  the  general 
statement  without  regard  to  its  qualifying 
clause  and  held  it  up  to  ridicule.  The  cham- 
pions of  the  new  hypothesis  do  not  deny  that 
soils  vary  in  fertility.  But  they  assume  that 
the  factor  of  mineral  plant  food  is  practically 
fixed  and  can  be  ignored  in  exploring  the 
problem  of  why  some  soils  are  fertile  and 
others  are  not.  They  occupy  the  role  of  phy- 
sicians diagnosing  the  ailments  of  sick  plants. 
If  the  plants  have  proper  food  they  should 
not  starve.  Yet  some  plants  do  starve.  It 
is  found  they  have  the  proper  food,  there- 
fore the  physicians  can  ignore  the  food  supply 
as  a  factor.  They  must  look  for  something 
])eyond  that  to  explain  the  ailment.  That  is 
exactly  what  they  are  doing  in  explaining 
the  ailments  of  plants  and  soils,  as  we  shall 
see  in  the  next  chapter. 

The  "exhaustion"  of  the  soil  has  been  a 
subject  of  vital  concern  since  historic  times. 


EVIDENCE    OF    HISTORY  253 

Two  thousand  years  ago  the  Romans  be- 
lieved their  soils  so  near  depletion  that  they 
adopted  a  system  of  alternate  fallow  and 
cropping.  The  acres  of  the  Campania  dis- 
trict were  the  wonder  of  all  students  of  those 
times  because  of  their  ability  to  produce 
crops  every  season  without  fallow.  Fallow 
is  considered  a  necessary  practice  in  European 
Russia  to-day.  The  Black  Earth  Regions  of 
Russia,  producing  as  much  wheat  as  the 
United  States  under  a  most  primitive  form 
of  agriculture,  are  cropped  only  two  out  of 
every  three  years.  That  is,  one-third  of  the 
land  lies  idle  every  year.  It  is  the  belief 
among  the  peasants,  handed  down  for  hun- 
dreds of  years,  that  fallow  is  necessary  to 
retain  the  "strength"  of  the  land. 

Single-cropping,  the  evil  of  an  extensive 
system  of  farming,  such  as  has  been  practiced 
in  the  United  States  for  the  last  fifty  years, 
was  early  recognized  as  one  of  the  quickest 
ways  of  "taking  the  heart  out  of  the  land." 
Adam  Dickson  (The  Husbandry  of  the  An- 
cients, Edinburgh,  1788)  quotes  liberally 
from  Pliny,  Virgil,  Cato  and  others,  to  show 
that  rotation  of  crops  had,  even  in  those  times, 
come  to  be  recognized  as  a  necessity  if  they 


254      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

wished  the  soils  to  continue  to  feed  the  nation. 
Phny  also  recognized  the  necessity  of  adapting 
the  crop  to  the  soil,  and  in  this  connection  he 
mentions  the  benefits  to  the  soil  to  be  had 
from  the  growth  of  legumes,  "which  are 
pulled  up  and  not  cut  in  reaping;  hence  they 
are  called  legums  because  thus  gathered." 

Modern  Europe  early  began  establishing 
experiment  stations  in  an  effort  to  determine 
the  exact  nature  of  soil  fertility;  although  it 
was  not  until  the  time  of  Liebig,  about  1840, 
that  active  direction  was  given  to  these  experi- 
ments. The  United  States  and  other  younger 
nations,  recognizing  soil  fertility  as  a  national 
asset,  and  the  determination  of  its  nature  as  a 
national  function,  developed  experiment  sta- 
tions in  great  numbers.  At  the  present  time 
each  State  in  the  Union  has  such  a  station 
supported  by  federal  subsidy  under  the  Hatch 
Act,  and,  in  addition,  stations  supported  by 
state  subsidy  alone,  and  still  others  conducted 
in  connection  with  agricultural  colleges.  Thus, 
there  is  no  dearth  of  data  for  one  who  seeks 
to  study  the  problem  of  soil  fertility  in  its 
numerous  branches. 

The  most  classic  experiments  recorded  in 
the  literature  of  agriculture  are  those  of  the 


EVIDENCE    OF    HISTORY  255 

Rothamsted  Station  in  England.  The  Roth- 
amsted  Station  was  established  by  Sir  John 
Lawes  in  1843,  and  on  his  death,  in  1901,  en- 
dowed in  perpetuity  by  him. 

Associated  with  him  for  more  than  fifty 
years  was  Sir  Henry  Gilbert,  a  pupil  of  the 
great  Liebig  himself.  It  is  a  noteworthy  fact 
that,  although  the  endowment  of  Rothamsted 
is  made  up  from  a  fortune  accumulated  in  the 
chemical  fertilizer  industry,  Sir  John  Lawes 
never  permitted  his  business  interests  to  sway 
him  in  the  least  in  his  classic  undertaking.  In 
fact,  at  the  time  of  his  death  he  admitted  that 
the  most  puzzling  problem  to  be  solved  was 
the  fact  that  a  field  of  wheat  in  rotation,  never 
manured  since  1848,  produced  more  grain  than 
another  field  continuously  cropped  and  con- 
tinuously fertilized  for  each  crop  with  a  "com- 
plete fertilizer." 

The  Bureau  of  Soils  of  the  Department  of 
Agriculture  does  not  conduct  field  experi- 
ments. All  its  data  is  drawn  from  the  ex- 
periments of  the  state  stations  and  the  stations 
of  the  Old  World.  That  these  American  sci- 
entists should  interpret  these  orthodox  ex- 
periments in  the  light  of  a  revolutionary 
theory — as   sustaining   their   own   theory,   in 


256      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

fact — has  been  the  cause  of  some  bitter  re- 
criminations. 

In  attacking  the  hypothesis  of  "immutable 
assets,"  the  first  point  considered  vulnerable 
— and  dangerous  to  teach — is  the  statement 
that  potash  and  phosphorus  are  always  avail- 
able in  sufficient  ratio  to  feed  plants. 

Professor  Edward  J.  Russell  (Science 
Progress,  Vol.  VI.),  of  the  Rothamsted  Sta- 
tion, examines  the  theory  of  the  Bureau  of 
Soils  in  detail,  and  rejects  the  assertion  of  free 
solubility  of  the  soil  minerals  as  unfounded. 
He  accepts  the  German  theory  that  soil  grains 
are  rendered  insoluble  by  a  coating  of  silicates, 
which  acts  in  the  same  way  as  a  hollow  glass 
ball  filled  with  common  salt.  The  glass  would 
prevent  the  water  from  coming  in  contact  with 
the  salt  and  therefore  withholds  it  from 
solution. 

Doctor  Cameron  and  James  M.  Bell,  in 
their  experiments  as  to  the  solubility  of  min- 
erals (Bulletin  30,  Bureau  of  Soils),  admit 
that  they  reached  a  point  in  some  of  their  ex- 
periments where  further  potash  could  not  be 
removed  from  soils  by  leaching  without  re- 
grinding  the  soil  grains,  and  state  that  "this 
gradual  cessation  of  the  yield  of  potash  has 


EVIDENCE    OF    HISTORY  257 

been  attributed  to  the  formation  of  colloidal 
aluminum  silicate  on  the  surface  of  the  mineral 
particles." 

Referring  to  this  possibility,  the  authors  say 
(page  23,  Bulletin  30) : 

"Silica  is  a  normal  product  of  the  decom- 
position of  the  minerals  and  has  accumulated 
in  relatively  large  proportions  in  the  soil.  It 
may  be  present  as  quartz,  amygdaloidal  silica, 
or  perhaps  as  other  forms.  But  imdoubtedly 
there  is  a  distinct  tendency  through  solution 
and  redisposition  for  it  to  be  gradually 
changed  from  other  forms  into  quartz.  Under 
arid  conditions,  as  is  well  known,  it  is  common 
to  find  the  quartz  crystals  and  crystal  frag- 
ments with  sharp  clean  edges,  while  they  are 
usually  more  or  less  rounded  in  soils  from 
humid  areas.  But  it  is  astonishing  to  find  how 
often  even  in  humid  areas  the  quartz  does  show 
clean  sharp  edges  and  smooth  surfaces,  with 
well-marked  terminal  planes,  apparently  due 
to  redeposition  from  solutions.  These  facts  are 
important  because  they  tend  to  negative  some- 
times expressed  opinions,  that  the  silica  as  it  is 
formed  from  the  minerals  either  as  a  colloid 
or  in  some  other  form,  coats  the  minerals  and 
prevents  further  solvent  action  on  them.  Evi- 
dence is  wanting  for  the  existence  of  such  silica 
coatings  on  the  minerals  of  the  soil." 


258      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

They  admit  that  such  coating  might  take 
place  to  some  extent,  but  they  contend  that 
since  sihca  itself  is  soluble  it  could  only  act 
as  retarding  the  solution. 

The  Rothamsted  workers  accept  as  estab- 
lished the  theory  of  the  Bureau  of  Soils  that 
the  physical  texture  of  soils  is  much  more 
important  in  determining  the  immediate 
productivity  than  chemical  analysis.  Their 
principal  quarrel  with  the  Bureau  of  Soils  has 
to  do  with  the  theories  advanced  by  the 
Americans  as  to  the  part  the  organic  constit- 
uents of  the  soil  play  in  soil  fertility.  We 
will  examine  their  objections  in  connection 
with  a  statement  of  what  these  theories  con- 
sist of  in  the  next  chapter.  It  is  sufficient  to 
say  here  that,  in  the  words  of  Doctor  Russell, 
"they  do  not  accept  the  American  hypothesis, 
but  must  admit  they  have  none  to  offer  in  its 
place." 

The  American  opponents  of  the  "American" 
theory  rest  their  case  on  their  own  interpre- 
tation of  the  results  obtained  in  experiments 
dating,  in  some  instances,  over  periods  of 
twenty-five  years. 

This  historical  data  is  far  too  voluminous 
for  the  farmer  in  the  field  to  reduce  to  broad 


EVIDENCE    OF    HISTORY  259 

principles ;  yet  the  results  are  available  to  him 
in  condensed  form  in  the  annual  publications 
of  the  various  state  experiment  stations,  giv- 
ing the  analyses  of  chemical  fertilizers  bought 
in  open  market.  These  fertilizers  are  usually 
designated  as  being  especially  fitted  for  wheat, 
corn,  potatoes  or  other  crops,  and  are  supposed 
to  represent  the  last  word  in  scientific  knowl- 
edge as  to  the  needs  of  particular  crops.  Thus 
we  have  systematized  formulas  indicated  for 
the  various  crops,  founded  not  on  the  experi- 
ments of  the  manufacturers  themselves,  but 
on  the  work  of  the  official  experiment  sta- 
tions of  the  many  states  supported  by  public 
funds. 

Each  manufacturer  is  bound,  under  the  law, 
to  designate  plainly  the  number  of  pounds 
per  hundred  of  the  three  "plant  foods"  his 
mixture  contains,  nitrogen,  potash  and  phos- 
phoric acid;  and  if,  on  analysis  of  samples 
bought  in  open  market,  his  product  is  found 
to  fall  below  the  specified  standard,  the  man- 
ufacturer is  subject  to  prosecution  and  fine 
and  imprisonment.  So  well  established  is  the 
Liebig  theory  on  our  statute  books,  in  fact, 
that  the  "pure  food"  law  as  applied  to  the  food 
of  plants  is  as  definite  as  that  applied  to  the 


260      THE  FARMER   OF  TO-MORROW 

food  and  drugs  intended  for  human  consump- 
tion. 

There  is,  therefore,  no  reason  for  wonder 
that  the  average  farmer  interprets  the  use  of 
chemicals  only  in  the  light  of  so  much  plant 
food  added  to  his  soil,  and  calculates  their 
value  accordingly.  That  is  exactly  what  the 
state  experiment  station  experts  have  been 
trained  to  do,  and,  with  the  weight  of  the 
dominant  theory  impressing  them  at  all  times, 
it  is  small  wonder  that  they  have  come,  in 
time,  to  measure  values  only  through  the 
plant-food  factor.  Jeremiah,  the  farmer  in 
the  field,  reads  that  the  use  of  $1,000  worth 
of  potash  salts,  applied  to  a  given  field,  in- 
creased the  yield  by  $10,000  in  value.  He 
is  not  apt  to  go  beyond  the  implied  conclusion 
that  the  field  must  have  been  lacking  in  avail- 
able potash  to  attain  such  striking  results.  He 
does  not  inquire  into  the  peculiar  climatic  con- 
ditions affecting  the  particular  crop,  the  na- 
ture of  the  soil  as  to  its  physical  characteristics 
and  organic  content,  or  the  methods  of  cultiva- 
tion or  the  quality  of  seed  used. 

Nevertheless,  there  is  a  growing  army  of 
experts  who  are  beginning  to  question  more 
and  more  the  value  of  the  volume  of  data 


EVIDENCE    OF    HISTORY  261 

dealing  with  the  use  of  chemicals.  The  mere 
fact  that  a  chemical  was  used  in  the  process  of 
farming  a  field  that  proved  especially  fertile 
does  not  necessarily  mean  that  the  added  pro- 
ductivity was  due  solely  to  the  use  of  that 
chemical.  Liebig  himself  recognized  the  in- 
sufficiency of  his  theory  of  mineral  require- 
ments. He  comments  frequently  in  his  writ- 
ings on  the  fact  that  crops  do  not  respond  in 
proportion  to  the  plant  food  fed  to  them;  in 
fact,  he  notes,  in  many  instances,  that  soils  fall 
off  in  productivity  even  when  fed  freely  when 
subjected  to  the  same  crop  year  after  year. 

What  are  these  experiments  worth  then  to 
the  farmer? 

They  are  worth  nothing,  unless  he  is  capable 
of  interpreting  them  with  full  knowledge  of 
conditions.  Unfortunateh%  much  of  the  early 
data  is  valueless  because  of  the  inclination  of 
the  experimenters  to  consider  all  other  con- 
ditions as  fixed  and  only  the  mineral  plant- 
food  requirement  of  soils  as  varying. 

Even  when  climatic  and  cultural  conditions 
are  identical,  the  widest  range  of  yields  is 
experienced.  The  average  farmer  has  no  con- 
ception of  the  different  types  of  soils,  both 
physical  and  chemical,  which  are  to  be  found 


262      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

in  a  single  field.  Many  of  the  variants  are 
too  subtle  to  be  calculated,  yet  they  make 
for  the  widest  divergence  in  results. 

As  an  illustration  of  this  point,  let  us  take 
the  data  of  experiments  in  wheat  fertilizers, 
3,227  in  number,  conducted  by  state  experi- 
ment stations,  and  tabulated  by  the  Bureau  of 
Soils  at  Washington.  It  is  to  be  presumed 
in  this  connection  that  the  soils  used  in  the 
experiments,  even  though  they  are  scattered 
over  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  country, 
are  at  least  ordinarily  suitable  for  wheat 
culture,  otherwise  the  work  would  be  useless. 

The  usual  method  of  experimenting  is  to 
divide  a  field  into  parallel  plots  as  nearly  uni- 
form as  possible,  both  as  to  fertility  and  as  to 
size.  "Test"  or  "check"  plats  are  always  main- 
tained in  connection  with  an  experiment  to 
compare  the  results  with  and  without  fer- 
tilizers. 

Yet  in  these  official  experiments  the  pro- 
ductivity of  the  check  plats  is  found  to  vary 
in  yield  from  less  than  one  bushel  to  more 
than  fifty  bushels  to  the  acre.  That  is,  with- 
out the  use  of  fertilizers  of  any  kind. 

With  oats  the  yield  of  the  check  plats  varied 
from  less  than  ten  to  more  than  eighty  bushels 


EVIDENCE    OF    HISTORY  263 

to  the  acre.  And  so  with  corn,  potatoes,  all 
crops.  These  experiments  cover  widely  scat- 
tered fields,  it  is  true,  and  varying  climatic 
conditions,  but  in  the  same  acre  the  most  re- 
markable variations  in  fertility  may  be  found 
under  identical  treatment  and  climatic  condi- 
tions. An  acre  of  wheat  looks  fairly  uniform 
to  the  naked  eye.  Yet,  if  the  farmer  divides 
it  into  twenty-five  foot  strips  and  harvests  each 
strip  separately  he  may,  probably  will,  find 
that  the  yield  of  some  plats  is  several  times 
that  of  others.  In  one  corner  he  will  find 
more  straw,  in  another  more  grain,  and  in  a 
third,  barren  stalks. 

If,  now,  instead  of  subjecting  the  whole 
acre  to  uniform  treatment,  he  used  part  as 
check  plats  and  divided  the  remainder  among 
different  systems  of  fertilizing,  would  he  be 
justified  in  accounting  for  the  difference  in 
yields  by  the  systems  of  fertilizing  he  used? 
Would  he  be  justified  in  saying  that  a  dress- 
ing of  nitrate  of  soda  was  the  sole  cause  of  a 
yield  of  ten  per  cent,  above  the  average  of  the 
other  plats?  He  would  not,  unless  he  were 
in  a  position  to  say  that  all  other  factors  were 
uniform.  And  he  cannot  say  that.  He  does 
not  know,  and  at  this  period  in  the  advance 


264      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

of  the  science  of  agriculture  there  is  no  method 
of  determining. 

When  it  comes  to  a  question  of  chmatic 
conditions,  the  divergence  becomes  very 
marked.  The  yield  of  corn  in  the  State  of 
Nebraska  for  the  ten  years,  1867-1876,  varied 
from  10  bushels  an  acre  in  one  year  to  40 
bushels  an  acre  in  another  year.  The  soil  was 
new,  fairly  uniform,  and  subjected  to  the  same 
treatment  in  one  year  as  another.  Yet  here 
were  thousands  of  farmers  who  produced  four 
times  as  much  corn  with  the  same  tools  in 
one  year  as  they  did  in  another.  The  effect 
of  climate  on  production  is  so  great,  in  fact, 
that  experiments  of  a  single  year  are  to  be 
dismissed  as  of  little  value.  That  is  why  sci- 
entists turn  to  Rothamsted  for  data,  because 
there  we  find  fields  that  have  been  under  ob- 
servation for  over  65  years.  But,  in  spite  of 
this  fact,  the  experts  in  charge  of  the  Rotham- 
sted fields  are  no  more  able  to  forecast  the  be- 
havior of  a  given  field  to-day  than  they  were 
65  years  ago.  They  know,  in  a  general  way, 
that  the  use  of  chemicals  has  increased  yields 
in  a  majority  of  instances;  but  under  certain 
conditions  of  sunshine  and  rain  the  field  that 
has  been  most  bountifully  "fed"  may  produce 


EVIDENCE    OF    HISTORY  265 

less  than  a  field  than  has  been  systematically 
"starved." 

Even  in  the  matter  of  the  chemical  analysis 
of  the  soil  experts  seldom  agree.  There  are 
many  methods  of  determining  the  mineral 
content  of  soil,  all  stamped  with  the  approval 
of  official  and  duly  qualified  chemists.  Mix 
a  sample  of  soil  well,  so  as  to  insure  its  being 
uniform,  and  ask  five  men,  qualified  for  the 
task,  for  an  analysis.  Their  results  will  vary 
in  some  instances  hundreds  of  pounds  of  each 
ingredient  to  an  acre-foot. 

The  opposing  sides  of  the  theory  of  "im- 
mutable assets"  both  point  to  the  famous  Ag- 
dell  Field  at  Rothamsted  as  furnishing  evi- 
dence to  confute  each  other.  Thus  statistics 
are  subject  to  the  most  diverse  interpretation. 
This  field  contains  one  plat  where  wheat  has 
been  grown  every  fourth  year  in  rotation 
for  more  than  fifty  years.  It  contains 
another  plat  where  wheat  has  been  grown 
every  year.  In  the  first  instance  no  fer- 
tilizer was  applied.  In  the  second  the  land 
was  dressed  with  a  "complete  fertilizer"  every 
year. 

What  has  been  the  result?  On  the  un- 
fertilized plat  the  yield  of  grain  has  been  1,490 


^ee      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-JMORROW 

pounds.  On  the  fertilized  plat  the  yield  was 
1,298  pounds. 

Does  this  establish  the  fact  that  the  soil 
itself  contained  sufficient  fertility  and  that  ro- 
tation of  crops  without  chemicals  gave  larger 
returns  than  extensive  fertilization? 

One  party  to  the  controversy  says  that  the 
experiment  does  not  establish  this  as  a  con- 
clusion. They  say  "Let  us  see  what  hap- 
pened when  this  land  was  subjected  to  other 
crops,  such  as  turnips  or  barley." 

We  find  that  this  piece  of  land  in  rotation 
did  not  produce  enough  turnips  to  pay  for  the 
seed.  Also  the  barley  was  low  in  yield.  Thus, 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  this  plot  was  suf- 
ficiently rich  to  grow  28%  bushels  of  wheat 
every  four  years,  it  was  not  able  to  grow  tur- 
nips or  barley  profitably. 

This  objection  is  immediately  answered  by 
quoting  from  Sir  John  Lawes  himself.  He 
discovered,  after  the  experiment  had  been 
under  way  several  years,  that  the  physical 
texture  of  the  soil  was  not  suited  to  produce 
either  turnips  or  barley,  no  matter  how  rich 
it  might  prove  to  be  in  minerals.  The  soil  was 
too  heavy  to  grow  either  of  these  crops  profit- 
ably. 


EVIDENCE    OF    HISTORY  267 

Thus,  one  unconsidered  factor  nullifies  the 
value  of  this  classic  experiment. 

China,  as  we  have  said,  presents  a  history 
of  four  thousand  years  for  the  study  of  the 
agricultural  scientist.  So  closely  does  this  na- 
tion press  the  limit  of  her  acres  that  floods 
or  prolonged  droughts  spread  famine  in  their 
wake.  The  soils  of  China  are  capable  of  sus- 
taining her  population,  more  than  fifteen  times 
as  dense  as  our  own,  when  the  weather  factor 
does  not  swing  too  violently  to  one  side  or  the 
other. 

The  evidence  seems  undeniable  that  her  soils 
are  more  productive  to-day  than  they  were 
four  thousand  years  ago.  One-half  an  acre 
supports  one  human  being  in  peace  and  con- 
tentment; we  use  10  acres  for  the  same  task. 

We  are  told  that  the  Chinese  are  careful  to 
return  all  waste  to  the  soil.  So  far  is  this 
carried.  Professor  King  tells  us  (Farmers  of 
Forty  Centuries),  that  the  water  is  not  fit  to 
drink  without  boiling.  The  Chinese  drink  tea 
not  because  they  like  tea  better  than  water, 
but  because  boiled  water  is  not  palatable,  and 
the  Chinese  hit  on  the  idea  of  flavoring  it  with 
the  leaves  of  a  shrub  that  grows  on  their  soils 
in  great  profusion. 


268      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

The  opponents  of  the  theory  of  "immutable 
assets"  assert  that  the  soils  of  the  Far  East 
have  held  up  under  the  tremendous  strain  put 
upon  them  because  of  the  most  careful  system 
for  the  conservation  of  waste  practiced  by 
these  people.  Yet,  in  four  thousand  years  the 
soils  of  China  have  produced  a  population 
mounting  in  the  billions.  Were  the  biblical 
injunction  of  "dust  to  dust,  ashes  to  ashes" 
an  actuality,  then  the  earth  would  lose  nothing 
because  that  which  was  earth  would  return  to 
earth.  The  Chinese  construct  elaborate  tombs 
for  the  preservation  of  their  dead.  Their  re- 
ligion teaches  them  not  to  violate  with  the 
plow-share  the  earth  housing  the  bones  of  their 
ancestors;  indeed,  in  some  provinces  in  China 
the  land  occupied  by  tombs  is  more  than  one- 
half  of  the  total. 

China  has  always  been  an  exporting  nation. 
Of  the  three  nations,  China,  Corea  and  Japan, 
only  Japan  has  come  in  recent  years  to  use 
chemicals  as  fertilizers,  and  she  only  in  an 
experimental  way.  Why  do  these  historic 
soils  give  no  evidence  of  wearing  out?  The 
question  cannot  be  answered  by  the  "Theory 
of  Mineral  Requirements  of  Plants." 

Right  here  at  home  we  have  only  recently 


EVIDENCE    OF    HISTORY  269 

come  into  the  possession  of  authoritative  evi- 
dence supporting  the  new  hypothesis  of  "im- 
mutable assets,"  at  least  as  applied  to  the 
growing  of  apples.  The  state  experiment 
station  at  Geneva,  New  York,  concluded  fer- 
tilizer tests  in  the  growing  of  apples  in  1911, 
extending  over  a  period  of  fifteen  years.  The 
data  giving  the  results  in  detail  is  published 
in  Bulletin  339  of  the  Geneva  station. 

The  conclusion  reached  is  that  "on  good 
soils,  properly  drained  and  tilled,  and  with 
the  trees  kept  in  healthy  condition,  the  apple 
secures  plenty  of  plant  food  for  its  needs  and 
responds  little,  or  not  at  all,  to  liberal  fer- 
tilizing." 

Quoting  verbatim  from  the  "conclusion" 
reached  by  these  experimenters,  whose  results 
seem  to  be  so  much  at  variance  with  the 
orthodox  method  of  growing  fruit : 

"The  final  conclusion  must  be  that  the  trees 
in  this  experiment  would  be  practically  as 
well  off  in  every  respect  had  not  an  ounce 
of  fertilizer  been  used  about  them.  If  fer- 
tilizers have  no  value  for  young  trees  in  this 
orchard,  they  have  no  value  in  innumerable 
other  orchards  in  New  York.  Fruit  growers 
are  spending  money  and  losing  time,  as  we 


270      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

shall  try  to  show  in  the  next  paragraph,  in 
'carrying  coals  to  Newcastle.'  Again  it  must 
be  said  that  the  soil  in  this  orchard  is  about 
the  same  as  the  average  apple  lands  in  Western 
New  York — no  better,  no  worse.  If  there  is 
any  material  difference,  it  is  that  this  experi- 
ment plantation  has  been  better  tilled  and  bet- 
ter cared  for  in  most  respects  than  the  average 
orchard.  But  the  trees  have  not  been  coddled 
— ^the  care  has  not  been  better  than  that  given 
in  the  best  commercial  orchards.  One  of  the 
lessons  the  experiments  should  teach  is  that 
fertilizers  are  not  necessary  in  some  soils  if 
tillage  and  good  care  be  the  rule — the  truth  of 
the  old  adage  that  'tillage  is  manure.'  " 

It  is  the  opinion  of  the  authors  of  this  bul- 
letin that  "the  soil  must  be  a  poor  fruit  type 
indeed,  that  will  not,  when  properly  handled, 
grow  good  crops  of  apples  without  artificial 
feeding." 

The  experimenters  find  that  the  upper 
twelve  inches  of  soil  in  this  experimental 
orchard  contain  enough  nitrogen  for  183  crops 
of  apples,  phosphoric  acid  for  295  years, 
and  potash  for  713  years.  However,  they  are 
careful  to  avoid  the  position  of  seeming  to 
favor  the  "immutable  assets"  hypothesis,  even 
though  their  experiments  seem  to  establish  it. 


EVIDENCE    OF    HISTORY  271 

They  assert  that  this  same  soil  responds 
readily  to  commercial  fertilizers  for  garden 
crops  and  they  explain  the  apparently  contrary 
results  in  fruit  growing  by  saying  that  the 
apple  gets  its  food  over  a  long  season  of 
growth;  its  roots  run  deeper  and  feed  over  a 
wide  range;  it  transpires  relatively  large 
amounts  of  water,  and  can  gather  food  from 
more  dilute  solutions  than  annual  crops,  and 
that  its  leaves  return  to  the  earth  that  pro- 
duced them. 

This  bulletin,  for  all  that  its  authors  take 
a  middle  ground,  was  not  well  received  by 
the  agricultural  press.  In  fact,  it  received  as 
scant  attention  from  the  farm  editors  as  has 
the  federal  Bureau  of  Soils  hypothesis.  In 
the  face  of  the  established  facts  of  this  test, 
one  editor  stated  that  "it  is  believed  the  ex- 
perience of  fruit  growers  is  to  the  contrary." 


CHAPTER   IX 
SOIL  SANITATION 

If  the  farmer  possesses  in  his  fields  a  mine 
of  inexhaustible  mineral  resources,  whj'-  is  it 
that  one  field  yields  bountifully,  while  an- 
other does  not  repay  the  expense  of  seed? 

Maybe  the  soil  is  tired. 

If  a  man  worked  eight  hours  breaking  stone, 
he  is  tired.    He  is  fatigued. 

What  is  fatigue?  Fatigue  is  poison,  it  is  a 
toxin  secreted  by  muscles.  This  is  a  scien- 
tific fact  well  substantiated  by  research.  There 
is  nothing  sensationally  "yellow"  in  the 
articles  that  crop  out  now  and  again  in  the 
newspapers  to  the  effect  that  "the  germ  of 
laziness"  has  been  found.  According  to  the 
newspapers,  this  "germ"  has  been  run  down 
to  its  lair  at  least  a  score  of  times  in  the  last 
few  years.  The  simple  statement  is  almost 
scientific,  in  spite  of  the  way  the  popular  comic 
artists   handle   it.     Fatigue   has   never   been 

072 


SOIL    SANITATION  273 

isolated  as  a  germ,  but  it  has  been  isolated  as 
a  toxic  substance.  Fatigue  in  muscles  of  men 
and  animals  is  not  due  to  a  lack  of  food  in  the 
muscles,  blood  or  lymph.  It  is  due  rather  to 
an  excess  of  the  products  of  metabolism.  ( Soil 
Fatigue,  Oswald  Schreiner  and  M.  X.  Sul- 
livan, Jour.  Biological  Chemistry,  Vol.  VI.) 

German  scientists  have  been  able  to  isolate 
a  true  toxin  from  the  muscles  of  a  tired  dog. 
And,  to  show  that  fatigue  in  this  instance 
was  nothing  more  or  less  than  a  poison  ex- 
creted by  the  muscles  in  the  process  of  func- 
tioning, they  injected  this  substance  into  the 
muscles  of  another  dog.  It  brought  about  all 
the  symptoms  of  fatigue  in  the  second  animal, 
although  that  animal  was  refreshed  by  a  long 
sleep. 

Thus,  when  we  say  a  man  is  tired  from 
breaking  stone,  we  mean  that  his  muscles  have 
accumulated  a  waste  product  faster  than 
phagocytes  of  the  blood  can  carry  it  away. 
The  action  of  the  muscles  becomes  sluggish. 
It  is  like  grit  in  the  bearings  of  a  machine. 

Give  the  tired  laborer  rest,  sunlight,  fresh 
air — let  him  sleep — give  the  scavengers  of  the 
blood  time  to  catch  up  with  their  task.  Or, 
change  his  occupation.    Let  him  do  something 


^74      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

else.  The  result  is  all  the  same,  generally- 
speaking.  If  the  laborer  is  tired  out  by  one 
form  of  muscular  exercise,  give  him  a  task 
that  brings  into  play  different  muscles  and  he 
will  be  able  to  continue  work. 

This  fact  is  recognized  by  the  so-called  ef- 
ficiency engineers  of  the  present  day.  They 
urge  that  laborers  be  given  a  rest  every  few 
hours,  and,  in  addition,  that  they  be  given  a 
change  of  employment  occasionally.  This 
runs  counter  to  the  old  theory  of  division  of 
labor,  that  a  man  is  most  efficient  if  he  be  per- 
mitted to  do  the  same  thing  all  the  while.  The 
old  theory  is  easily  explained  by  the  axiom 
that  practice  makes  perfect.  The  new  theory, 
that  a  laborer  should  be  given  change  of  oc- 
cupation, is  based  on  physiological  reasons, 
one  might  almost  say  pathological  reasons. 

The  established  fact  that  fatigue  can  be  in- 
duced by  chemical  means  suggested  a  new 
avenue  of  research  to  the  scientists  of  the  Fed- 
eral Bureau  of  Soils,  when  they  cast  around 
to  determine  the  causes  of  soil  fertility  and 
infertility. 

Maybe  the  soil  is  tired.  Maybe  the  soil  is 
poisoned.  Nature  intervenes  a  season  between 
crops,  subjects  the  soil  to  freezing,  thawing, 


SOIL    SANITATION  275 

aeration,  lets  it  sleep.  Yet,  if  a  soil  be  sub- 
jected to  single-cropping  for  a  generation  or 
two,  it  will  decline  in  productivity,  although 
an  analysis  shows  that  it  still  has  sufficient 
food  for  many  crops.  Maybe  the  soil  needs  a 
change  of  occupation,  just  as  man.  It  is  pos- 
sible that  the  season  of  rest,  intervened  by 
Nature,  is  not  sufficient  to  erlable  a  soil  to  re- 
cuperate, if  it  is  speeded  at  a  fast  rate.  We 
know  that  fallow  will  restore  the  life  of  soil. 
Fallow  is  merely  extending  the  period  of  rest, 
giving  the  soil  more  time  to  sleep.  We  also 
know  that  rotating  crops,  giving  the  soil  a 
change  of  occupation^  accomplishes  somewhat 
similar  results. 

Is  fatigue  in  the  soil  a  poison,  just  as  is 
fatigue  in  man  and  animals  ? 

If  such  a  suggestion  could  be  established 
as  an  actual  fact,  it  would  explain  at  once 
many  of  the  most  perplexing  problems  in  fer- 
tility. It  would  explain  rotation  of  crops  as 
"change  of  occupation,"  it  would  explain  fal- 
low as  "rest"  or  "sleep,"  and  it  would  explain 
the  benefits  due  to  cultivation,  in  addition  to 
conserving  moisture,  as  bringing  light  and  air 
into  the  soil  to  rejuvenate  it. 

There  is  a  set  of  interesting  experiments 


276      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

which  any  farmer  may  conduct  by  himself. 
They  were  suggested  to  the  scientists  of  the 
Bureau  of  Soils,  by  the  possibility  that  there 
does  actually  exist  a  parallel  between  the 
fatigue  of  a  man's  muscles  and  the  fatigue  of 
the  soil. 

Wheat  seedlings  were  grown  in  a  rich,  sandy 
soil,  under  glass,  in  a  greenhouse.  The  soil 
contained  much  richness;  temperature  and 
moisture  could  be  controlled  within  narrow 
limits;  and,  to  keep  the  body  of  soil  used  in 
the  experiment  separate,  it  was  inclosed  in  a 
wire  basket  dipped  in  parafine.  This  form 
of  pot  is  better  than  the  usual  one,  as  it  con- 
tains no  air  space  between  the  soil  and  pot, 
and  the  roots  do  not,  therefore,  cluster  about 
the  edges,  but  penetrate  the  mass,  as  they  do 
under  actual  field  conditions.  In  this  experi- 
ment every  effort  was  made  to  reproduce 
actual  field  conditions. 

The  wheat  was  allowed  to  grow  for  several 
weeks  in  the  wire  pot  and  then  was  pulled  up 
and  thrown  away.  Immediately  thereafter, 
another  crop  of  wheat  seedlings  was  planted 
in  the  same  soil  and  urged  to  growth  under 
the  same  conditions. 

The  peculiar  thing  about  it  was  that  this 


SOIL    SANITATION  277 

second  crop  of  wheat  did  not  thrive.  It  came 
up  sickly  and  spindling,  like  a  child  in  the  bad 
air  of  the  tenements.  Had  this  second  crop 
been  part  of  a  wheat  field,  the  crop  would 
have  been  called  a  failure. 

Why  did  this  second  crop  of  wheat  fail  to 
grow  thriftily  ?  The  soil  contained  hundreds  of 
times  the  amount  of  "plant  food"  necessary 
for  its  growth.  "Weather"  conditions,  that 
prime  factor,  were  the  best.  Yet  it  did  not 
grow. 

Repeated  attempts  failed  to  produce  a  sec- 
ond crop  of  wheat  as  good  as  the  first.  The 
soil  was  like  a  tired  laborer  who  had  worked 
a  full  shift.  He  is  incapable  of  continuing  his 
task  with  zest.    So  with  the  soil. 

Then  this  pot  of  soil  was  given  a  "change 
of  occupation."  It  was  planted  again,  but 
not  to  wheat  this  time.  Instead,  it  was  planted 
to  cow-peas.  The  cow-peas  grew  lustily !  The 
soil  that  could  not  produce  a  second  crop  of 
wheat  produced  cow-peas  as  thrifty  as  if  they 
had  been  grown  on  virgin  loam  under  ideal 
conditions. 

But  a  second  crop  of  cow-peas  was  less  suc- 
cessful. It  was  like  the  second  crop  of  wheat. 
Wheat  following  wheat  without  intermission 


278      THE   FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

failed,  just  as  cow-peas  following  cow-peas 
without  intermission  failed. 

Then  this  soil,  which  first  refused  to  grow  a 
second  crop  of  wheat,  but  grew  a  crop  of 
cow-peas,  and  then  refused  to  produce  a  sec- 
ond crop,  responded  readily  when  it  was 
asked  to  take  care  of  a  potato  seedling.  Thus, 
in  succession  it  would  grow  wheat,  cow-peas 
and  potatoes,  but  not  a  second  crop  of  either 
in  succession. 

After  the  potato  sprout  had  thrived  it  was 
taken  from  this  pot  and  a  wheat  seedling 
was  planted.    It  grew  to  perfection! 

Thus,  wheat  would  not  follow  wheat,  but 
when  two  other  crops  had  intervened,  the  soil 
responded  to  wheat  as  readily  as  it  had  in  the 
first  place. 

Had  the  originators  of  this  simple  experi- 
ment stumbled  on  the  secret  of  the  good 
usage  of  crop  rotation?  The  same  conditions 
are  met  with  in  field  practice.  Old  land,  well 
manured  though  it  may  be,  sickens,  gets  tired, 
when  it  is  asked  to  grow  one  crop  season  after 
season.  But  when  the  crop  is  changed  every 
year  the  soil  responds  perfectly.  The  same 
crop  can  be  grown  continuously  every  third 
or  fourth  year  without  diminution  of  yield. 


SOIL    SANITATION  279 

but  it  cannot  be  grown  successfully  every  year 
without  a  quick  drop  in  productivity.  Here 
is  a  factor  in  fertility,  or  the  lack  of  it,  in 
which  "plant  food"  as  such  plays  no  part. 

In  attempting  to  explain  the  peculiar  be- 
havior of  this  pot  of  soil,  all  of  the  usual  fac- 
tors could  be  set  aside.  The  soil  was  rich  in 
minerals,  its  organic  content  was  maintained, 
it  was  well  watered,  and  the  temperature  was 
at  the  optimum  for  the  production  of  these 
crops.  Going  back  to  the  analogy  of  the  tired 
laborer  with  poison  in  his  muscles,  it  was  sug- 
gested that  this  soil  was  tired.  It  was  given 
no  rest  between  crops.  In  nature,  seasons  in- 
tervene, to  give  the  recuperative  agencies  of 
the  soil  a  chance  to  work.  Even  if  such 
agencies  were  present  here,  they  were  given 
no  opportunity  to  work. 

The  experimenters  set  about  looking  for  the 
poison  of  fatigue  in  this  pot  of  soil.  To  con- 
centrate this  "poison,"  supposing  it  to  exist, 
they  forced  the  pots  to  grow  several  crops  of 
wheat  and  cow-peas  in  succession.  Then  they 
took  the  soil  and  subjected  it  to  analysis.  They 
isolated  crystalline  substances  from  these  soils 
that  had  grown  tired  of  growing  wheat  and 
cow-peas.    Searching  for  the  same  substances 


280      THE   FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

in  soils  that  had  not  grown  "tired"  of  these 
plants,  they  could  not  find  them.  Apparently 
they  did  not  exist.  Apparently  they  were  the 
product  of  the  growing  plant  or  the  product 
of  the  soil  in  its  process  of  functioning  to  pro- 
duce this  plant. 

If  these  substances  really  were  the  "poison 
of  fatigue,"  as  applied  to  wheat  and  cow-peas 
respectively,  a  demonstration  of  the  truth 
ought  to  be  simple  enough.  A  soil  solution, 
either  extracted  from  a  healthy  soil  or  put 
together  synthetically  in  the  laboratory,  was 
treated  with  an  "injection"  of  the  "poison" 
isolated  from  the  soil  that  was  sick  of  growing 
cow-peas.  Then  cow-pea  seedlings  were  intro- 
duced. Ordinarily  these  grow  well  in  water. 
But  they  did  not  grow  at  all  in  the  water  which 
had  been  treated  with  ^'poison." 

The  same  result  was  obtained  with  wheat 
seedlings,  in  a  solution  treated  with  the  wheat 
"poison." 

On  the  other  hand,  cow-peas  grew  well  in 
the  solution  inhibitory  to  wheat,  and  wheat 
grew  well  in  the  solution  that  would  not  grow 
peas.  Apparently  the  poison  was  peculiar  to 
each  family,  inhibitory  only  to  its  own  family 
of  plants. 


SOIL    SANITATION  281 

This  conclusion  is  borne  out  in  actual  farm 
practice.  The  average  farmer  is  familiar  with 
the  curious  phenomena  of  "sick"  soils — soils 
that  seem  "sick"  in  so  far  as  they  refuse  to 
grow  certain  crops.  Flax,  it  is  generally  as- 
sumed, is  wearing  on  soils  subjected  continu- 
ously to  its  production.  Those  soils  which  tire 
of  growing  flax  are  not  deficient  in  the  mineral 
elements  of  fertility,  as  is  easily  proved  by 
planting  them  to  other  crops.  The  so-called 
"clover-sick"  soil  is  another  instance.  Almost 
every  farmer  has  seen  within  his  own  experi- 
ence a  plot  of  land  that  once  grew  clover  well 
suddenly  become  sterile  as  regards  this  plant. 

Reclaimed  swamp  soils  seem  particularly 
susceptible  to  this  so-called  "sickness."  In  the 
corn  belt  it  is  not  unusual  to  see  such  soils 
break  down  in  the  course  of  two  or  three  years' 
continuous  cropping  of  corn,  yet  it  is  known 
that  their  innate  fertility  measured  in  minerals 
is  high.  In  California  reclaimed  soils  that 
grew  mammoth  crops  of  potatoes  at  first 
have  frequently  become  unprofitable  for 
potato  culture.  Yet  they  respond  admirably 
to  other  crops. 

In  the  laboratory  tests,  the  task  of  restor- 
ing this  sick  soil  to  its  original  fertility  as 


282      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

regards  any  crop  proved  exceedingly  simple, 
just  as  it  has  in  actual  field  practice. 

Part  of  the  test  soil  was  baked  in  an  oven. 
Nature  does  the  same  thing  by  prolonged 
periods  of  drought.  After  the  artificial 
"drought"  the  soil  became  productive  again. 

Boiling  had  the  same  effect.  Boiling  means 
sterilization.  Treating  it  with  charcoal,  bone- 
black,  lime,  ordinary  "pyro,"  used  in  photog- 
raphy, freezing  it,  any  of  these  methods  had 
the  same  effect.  Exposing  it  to  sunlight  and 
air — tillage — and  mixing  it  with  organic 
manures  which  are  subject  to  rapid  decay  were 
other  methods  adopted  with  equal  success. 

What  does  the  intelligent  farmer  do  in 
actual  practice? 

He  rotates  his  crops.  We  have  seen  that 
rotating  crops  in  the  experiments  seemed  to 
do  away  with  the  toxic  substances  or  at  least 
with  their  effects. 

He  applies  stable  manure.  He  plows  under 
green  crops.  He  tells  himself  that  in  so  do- 
ing he  is  adding  "plant  food"  to  the  soil  and 
he  accepts  the  word  of  the  expert  as  to  how 
many  pounds  of  minerals  he  is  adding  thus, 
and  he  usually  overlooks  the  fact,  which  the 
expert  seeks  to  impress  on  him,  that  barn- 


SOIL    SANITATION  283 

yard  manure  as  usually  handled  loses  more 
than  half  of  its  soluble  minerals  before  it  is 
scattered  on  the  field. 

The  toxic  soil  solution  that  was  benefited 
by  the  use  of  "manures"  did  not  require  plant 
food.  The  eflPect  of  the  manuring  must  then 
be  from  some  other  cause.  It  is  due  to  the 
fact  that  the  decaying  organic  substance 
liberates  oxygen  in  an  active  form,  which  is 
able  to  destroy  the  "poison"  of  the  soil. 

The  farmer  plows,  harrows,  cultivates. 
Tillage,  he  is  told,  conserves  moisture.  In 
addition  to  conserving  moisture,  it  aerates  the 
soil,  lets  in  the  air  and  sunlight. 

The  farmer  under-drains  his  fields.  Under- 
drainage  removes  excess  moisture,  and  in  doing 
so  opens  channels  through  which  the  air  may 
circulate. 

And  in  addition  to  these  practices  Nature 
steps  in  and  intervenes  seasons  of  rest  for  the 
soil.  The  toxic  soil  under  test  was  found  to 
be  restored  to  fertility  by  a  short  period  of 
rest. 

Study  the  methods  of  a  successful  farmer 
and  compare  them  with  the  methods  used  by 
the  scientists  in  this  laboratory  test  and  you 
will  see  that  they  follow  parallel.    Live-stock 


284      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

farming  is  recognized  as  one  of  the  highest 
types  because  of  the  immense  amount  of  or- 
ganic refuse  it  enables  the  husbandman  to  re- 
turn to  the  soil. 

Yet,  when  we  analyze  stable  manure,  the 
best  of  all  fertilizers,  we  do  not  find  large 
quantities  of  nitrogen,  potash,  or  phosphoric 
acid  even  under  the  most  favorable  conditions. 
Stable  manure  is  admitted  to  have  a  fertiliz- 
ing effect  on  land  far  in  excess  of  what  can 
be  computed  from  an  analysis.  In  England 
it  is  a  common  practice  to  charge  a  fresh 
dressing  of  manure  against  a  new  tenant  for 
seven  years.  In  a  long  continued  investiga- 
tion in  our  own  country,  it  was  found  that 
96  per  cent,  of  soils  responded  better  to  or- 
ganic manures  than  to  mineral  fertilizers  in 
commercial  form. 

Our  western  prairies  are  rich  with  the  de- 
caying mold  of  thousands  of  generations. 
Nature  practices  a  rotation  of  her  own.  First 
comes  the  process  of  selection,  in  which  the 
plants  best  suited  to  the  soil  survive  and  per- 
sist, while  the  others  perish.  In  time  each 
month  of  the  growing  season  comes  to  have  its 
peculiar  plant.  This  is  illustrated  by  the  suc- 
cession of  weeds  in  an  uncared-for  garden. 


SOIL    SANITATION  285 

Even  in  forests  Nature  rotates  her  crops. 
Pine  and  oak  alternate,  as  every  woodsman 
knows. 

If  Nature  had  no  other  means  than  crude 
rotation  the  soil  would  soon  cease  producing 
vegetation.  In  fact,  it  would  never  arrive  at 
the  point  of  selecting  its  own  cycle  of  rotation. 

But  Nature  has  another  means.  She  feeds 
her  soil.  She  does  not  feed  it  with  "plant 
food,"  as  expressed  in  pounds  of  minerals, 
but  she  stuffs  it  with  dead  fiber,  which,  in  the 
process  of  decay,  exercises  the  same  influences, 
though  in  a  less  active  form,  as  barn-yard 
manure  or  green  crops  plowed  under.  In  the 
process  of  decay  the  oxidizing  and  nitrifying 
substances  are  set  to  work,  "cleansing"  the  soil 
of  the  toxic  compounds  formed  during  the 
process  of  growth. 

The  prairie  soil  is  "loam"  not  because  of  the 
fine  mineral  particles  it  contains,  but  because 
of  the  content  of  decaying  organic  substances. 
The  best  practice  of  farming  teaches  that  the 
soils  should  be  kept  stuffed  with  decaying 
vegetation  in  one  form  or  another.  The 
prairies,  over  the  ages  of  their  wild  existence, 
were  able  to  store  up  a  tremendous  reserve 
of  these  sanitary  agencies.     So  great  was  this 


286     THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

reserve  that  it  took  a  greedy  nation  of  pioneers 
a  generation  or  two  to  break  down  the  power 
of  the  soil  to  recover  itself  with  the  natural 
rest  of  the  seasons.  Corn  followed  corn,  wheat 
followed  wheat  in  the  fifty  years  following  the 
opening  of  the  West  to  settlement.  Crop 
yields  began  to  decline  eventually,  and  the 
careless  farmer,  content  with  the  theory  that 
Nature  had  been  parsimonious  with  the  min- 
eral ingredients,  turned  to  the  fertilizer  bag. 
The  fact  that  chemical  fertilizers  act  as  a  tonic 
to  tired  soils  was  sufficient  proof  to  the  far- 
mer in  the  field  that  the  theory  of  Liebig  was 
right. 

Crop  rotation  was  forced  on  our  farmers 
only  when  weeds,  driven  from  their  happy 
hunting  grounds  by  the  plow,  returned  and 
adapted  themselves  to  the  new  conditions  and 
reproduced  themselves  in  profusion.  When  a 
farmer's  oat  field  became  so  foul  that  the  weeds 
clogged  his  machinery,  the  farmer  plowed  his 
oat  field  and  put  in  corn.  There  was  no  other 
rationale  behind  the  process  so  far  as  he  was 
concerned.  Even  to-day  nine-tenths  of  our 
wheat  comes  from  single-cropped  acres.  In 
the  Dakotas,  among  the  "jumbo"  wheat 
ranches,  it  is  customary  to  give  the  soil  a  year's 


SOIL    SANITATION  287 

rest — fallow — when  it  begins  to  show  signs  of 
breaking  down  under  single-cropping.  In  the 
Great  Plains  area  extensive  farming  has  called 
for  the  manufacture  of  machines  that  "head" 
the  grain,  leaving  the  stalks  standing,  to  be 
plowed  under  by  the  gang  plows  v/hich  fre- 
quently are  drawn  by  the  same  motive  power 
that  cuts  the  heads  and  threshes  the  grain.  This 
is  done  merely  because  it  is  convenient,  because 
it  is  the  most  economical  means  of  farming  in 
that  region;  the  fact  that  returning  the  dry 
stalk  to  the  land  is  beneficial  is  merely  inci- 
dental. The  straw  is  a  drug  on  the  market" 
and  plowing  it  under  is  the  easiest  means  of 
getting  rid  of  it.  It  is  said  that  four  mules  are 
required  for  the  same  plowing  that  required 
only  two  twenty  years  ago  in  some  parts  of 
the  irrigated  districts  in  the  West.  This  means 
that  the  soil  has  become  less  friable,  has  lost 
its  optimum  content  of  mold,  is  no  longer 
"loam,"  because  of  a  system  of  farming  which 
concerns  itself  more  with  the  mineral  fertility 
than  the  organic  content  of  soils. 

The  organic  content  of  soils  amounts  usually 
to  about  three  per  cent,  of  the  entire  bulk. 
It  is  not  assumed  that  the  only  or  even  the 
principal  use  of  this  mold  is  that  of  ridding 


288      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

the  soil  of  toxins.  Even  aside  from  this  prop- 
erty, which  exists  merely  as  a  hypothesis  at 
present,  the  organic  material  of  soils  exercises 
a  tremendous  part  in  fertihty. 

A  soil  containing  the  proper  mixture  of  de- 
caying vegetation  has  superior  moisture-hold- 
ing properties,  and  moisture  is  the  life-blood 
of  the  plant.  And  we  have  seen  that  decay- 
ing vegetation  furnishes  not  only  food  for  the 
plant,  but  food  for  the  microflora  and  micro- 
fauna  of  the  soil,  as  well.  The  instance  cited 
of  the  use  of  carbonaceous  debris,  such  as 
rotting  turnips,  as  food  for  the  bacteria  which 
fix  nitrogen  from  the  air  in  a  form  available 
for  the  use  of  plants,  is  an  illustration  of  this 
part  played  bj'^  the  organic  content. 

The  soil  is  not  a  dead  thing,  according  to 
the  latest  conception,  but  a  thing  teeming  with 
life,  both  plant  and  animal,  and  these  micro- 
scopic creatures  and  plants  have  a  dual  role 
to  perform.  They  feed  the  growing  plant  with 
palatable  food,  and,  at  the  same  time,  act  as 
scavengers  of  the  soil.  They,  in  turn,  depend 
for  their  healthy  activities,  not  on  the  mineral 
content  of  the  soil,  but  on  the  organic  con- 
tent. The  soil  must  be  sweet,  if  we  would 
"domesticate"  these   agencies   and   use  them 


SOIL    SANITATION  289 

to  the  best  advantage.     Therefore,  we  apply 
lime. 

It  is  doubtful  if  normal  soils  are  deficient 
in  lime  so  far  as  plants  require  it  as  a  mineral 
food.  Some  crops,  such  as  the  legumes,  are 
heavy  feeders  of  lime  and  require  that  a  bal- 
ance be  maintained  by  actually  adding  lime 
in  exceptional  instances.  But  by  far  the  most 
important  function  of  lime  is  to  cleanse  the 
soil  and  make  it  habitable  for  the  hosts  of 
bacteria  which  are  at  work  therein. 

It  is  a  common  experience  with  farmers  on 
soils  that  have  been  heavily  cropped  for  many 
years  to  see  alfalfa  or  clover  fail  utterly  unless 
lime  be  added  and  harrowed  into  the  soil.  An 
analysis  of  that  soil  would  probablj^  show  that 
calcium  carbonate  was  present  in  sufficient 
quantities  to  feed  the  legume.  But  a  test  of 
the  soil  with  litmus  paper  would  show  that  the 
acids  of  the  soil,  the  ferments  of  decaying  green 
vegetation  not  properly  controlled,  had  ren- 
dered the  soil  "sour,"  as  the  saying  goes. 
"Sour"  soil  will  not  grow  legumes;  although, 
on  the  other  hand,  it  is  considered  necessary 
by  many  farmers  for  growing  potatoes  with- 
out scab.  Potatoes  can  be  grown  on  the  same 
soil  year  after  year,  if  green  rye  or  other  green 


290      THE  FARMER   OF  TO-MORROW 

manure  be  plowed  under  in  the  spring  and 
be  given  a  chance  to  ferment. 

But  to  grow  the  legumes  successfully,  it  is 
necessary  that  the  bacteria  which  inhabit  the 
nodules  on  the  roots  of  these  plants  are  given 
a  chance  to  work  amid  sanitary  surroundings. 
The  soil  must  be  "sweet"  else  the  nitrogen- 
fixing  bacteria,  which  may  add  as  much  as  200 
pounds  of  nitrogen  to  an  acre  of  land  in  an 
ordinary  clover  crop,  will  die.  And,  in 
addition,  unless  the  decaying  mold  of  the  soil 
can  feed  these  same  bacteria  on  starches  in 
return  for  their  nitrates,  the  bacteria  are  use- 
less as  a  factor  in  soil  fertility. 

The  knowledge  of  bacteria,  molds  and  en- 
zymes as  affecting  fertility  is  still  fragmentary. 
Scientists  have  isolated  a  few  forms  or  "races" 
of  microscopic  plants  and  animals  and  de- 
termined their  part  in  soil  fertility  and  the 
conditions  under  which  they  thrive.  There 
are  other  forms  which,  under  conditions  favor- 
able to  their  culture,  render  the  most  fertile 
soils  sterile.  Professor  Hall  well  says  that  the 
farmer  of  the  future  must  domesticate  these 
unseen  life-forms,  encouraging  the  helpful 
organisms  and  doing  away  with  those  that  are 
harmful. 


SOIL    SANITATION  291 

The  belief  that  the  process  of  producing 
crops  on  a  soil  causes  the  formation  of  toxins 
is  not  new.  De  Candolle  suggested,  in  1832, 
that  plant  roots  excrete  a  poison  which  sooner 
or  later  would  render  any  soil  sterile  if  sub- 
jected to  single-cropping.  (Physiologic 
Vegetale,  Paris,  1832.)  Liebig  accepted  this 
explanation  as  the  true  one  at  first,  but  later 
began  his  researches  in  the  mineral  require- 
ments of  plants  and  abandoned  his  original 
position.  Once  his  Theory  of  the  Mineral  Re- 
quirements of  Plants  became  adopted  the  sug- 
gestion of  de  Candolle  was  forgotten.  Only 
when  American  scientists  turned  their  atten- 
tion again  to  the  part  played  by  the  organic 
elements  of  the  soil  was  this  suggestion  exam- 
ined in  detail  or  with  any  seriousness  of 
purpose. 

Even  to-day  our  own  scientists  do  not  ac- 
cept de  Candolle's  suggestion  literally.  They 
admit  they  have  isolated  substances  from  soils 
following  plant  growth,  but  they  are  not  ready 
to  admit  that  these  substances  are  the  result 
of  root  excreta.  In  several  instances  the  facts 
seem  to  point  to  that  explanation.  In  others, 
however,  the  origin  of  these  substances  is  much 
more  complex.     They  may  be  the  result  of 


292      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

ferments  of  organic  matter,  or  the  result  of  the 
action  of  bacteria  or  fungi,  as  these  agencies 
are  related  to  plant  growth. 

The  fact,  however,  that  deleterious  sub- 
stances are  to  be  found  in  soils  that  have  been 
cropped  set  a  task  for  the  scientists  of  the 
Bureau  of  Soils.  That  task  was  to  examine 
soils,  both  productive  and  non-productive, 
from  a  wide  range  of  samples  and  to  isolate 
compounds  to  be  found  therein.  This  is  the 
present  task  of  the  Bureau  of  Soils,  and  it  is 
a  work  requiring  the  best  powers  of  chemists. 
It  is  one  thing  to  discover  the  presence  of  a 
complex  compound  in  a  given  soil  or  a  soil 
solution ;  and  it  is  quite  another  to  isolate  that 
compound.  Over  fifty  compounds  have  been 
isolated  at  this  writing,  and  each  is  being  tested 
separately  for  its  effect  on  productive  soils 
and  its  action  under  different  treatments,  in- 
cluding the  application  of  mineral  fertilizers. 
Already  there  is  a  wealth  of  data  on  the  sub- 
ject, in  scientific  form,  and  gradually  broad 
principles  of  soil  fertility  are  being  put  for- 
ward as  theories  and  efforts  being  made  to 
check  these  theories  by  actual  practice. 

The  most  widely  found  toxin  is  a  compound 
known  technically  as  dihydroxystearic  acid. 


SOIL    SANITATION  293 

It  is  a  fatty  acid,  as  its  name  implies,  and  has 
been  found,  almost  without  exception,  in  all 
samples  of  infertile  soil  that  have  come  under 
the  examination  of  the  Bureau  of  Soils.  Shall 
we  say  that  here  we  have  isolated  the  "germ 
of  sterility"?  That  would  scarcely  be  justi- 
fied, except  in  a  journalistic  sense;  yet  it  has 
now  been  established  that  an  injection  of  this 
compound  in  any  soil  will  render  that  soil  un- 
productive. 

This  acid  has  been  known  to  science  for  a 
long  time,  but  merely  as  a  laboratory  product. 
That  it  was  being  produced  in  soils  and  caused 
them  to  be  infertile  was  a  distinct  addition  to 
knowledge.  Again  here,  as  with  the  toxins 
isolated  from  the  cow-pea  and  wheat  soils, 
sterilizing  or  sanitary  agents  are  found  to  re- 
store the  soil  to  productivity.  Furthermore, 
the  addition  of  mineral  fertilizer  salts  to  solu- 
tions rendered  sterile  by  this  compound  is 
found  to  have  the  same  effect. 

Not  all  salts  act  equally  well  in  restoring 
this  "sick"  soil  to  condition.  Potash  and 
phosphoric  acid  seem  to  have  little,  if  any, 
effect.  But  nitrogen,  in  the  form  of  nitrate  of 
soda,  which  costs  the  farmer  about  18  cents 
a  pound,  seemed  to  neutralize  the  effects  of  the 


294      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

dihydroxystearic  acid  entirely.  Here,  then,  is 
a  use  of  chemical  fertilizers  not  explained  by 
the  "plant  food"  theory. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  other  sub- 
stances found  in  normal  soils  which  are  ren- 
dered even  more  toxic  by  the  addition  of 
nitrates.  These  substances  are,  for  the  most 
part,  nitrogenous  themselves.  As  an  instance, 
a  substance  called  cumarin  is  found  to  have  a 
very  characteristic  effect  on  plants,  stunting 
the  growth  and  distorting  the  leaves.  The 
addition  of  nitrogen  or  potash  does  not  affect 
it  at  all.  Yet  the  addition  of  even  a  minute 
quantity  of  a  phosphate  salt  clears  the  soil  of 
this  toxin  and  a  healthy  plant  is  produced. 
Potash  salts  affect  still  another  series  of  toxic 
substances. 

In  presenting  in  detail  the  history  of  his 
investigations  of  this  phase  of  soil  fertility  be- 
fore the  American  Association  for  the  Ad- 
vancement of  Science,  at  a  recent  Washing- 
ton meeting,  Doctor  Oswald  Schreiner  was 
led  to  remark: 

"These  actions  of  the  different  fertilizer 
combinations,  or  different  fertilizer  require- 
ments, as  they  may  be  styled,  show  a  certain 
parallehsm  with  field  observations  on  soils  and 


SOIL    SANITATION  295 

their  fertilizer  requirements,  and  one  is 
tempted  to  ask  to  what  extent  the  different 
fertihzer  requirements  of  different  soils,  or  of 
the  same  soil  under  different  conditions,  may 
be  influenced  by  the  same  cause.  That  harm- 
ful bodies  occur  in  soils  has  been  amply  shown, 
and  that  these  are  influenced  directly  or  indi- 
rectly by  fertihzer  salts  is  also  clear  from 
these  and  other  researches. 

"That  the  constitution  of  the  organic  mat- 
ter varies  from  soil  to  soil  and  in  the  same 
soil  under  different  conditions  of  aeration, 
drainage,  and  cropping  is  likewise  clear.  The 
presence  of  compounds  inimical  to  plant 
growth  by  virtue  of  a  property  resembling 
that  of  any  of  the  above-mentioned  substances 
might,  therefore,  cause  a  different  fertilizer 
requirement,  a  requirement  which  might  even 
change  from  time  to  time,  according  to  the 
nature  of  the  biochemical  relations  producing 
the  body  or  according  to  the  nature  of  the 
plant  remains  in  the  soil;  in  other  words,  ac- 
cording to  the  rotation,  with  its  necessary 
altered  soil  management,  and  the  altered  bio- 
chemical changes  produced  in  the  different 
plant  remains." 

Alt  ijt  i|t  Alt  jlt 

"Organic  matter  is  very  changeable;  it  is 
the  material  which  forms  the  food,  as  it  were, 
of  all  the  microorganisms  of  the  soil,  of  the 
bacteria,  of  the  molds,  of  the  protozoa,  and  in- 


296      THE   FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

fluences  them  favorably  or  unfavorably,  just 
as  the  higher  plants  are  affected.  In  turn, 
these  agents  are  great  promoters  of  these 
changes  in  the  organic  debris  of  soil.  All  of 
these  processes  and  the  life  forms  in  the  soil 
are  affected  by  fertilizer  salts  when  added  to 
the  soil,  and  changes  are  produced  in  the  soil, 
physical,  chemical,  and  biochemical,  which  in- 
fluence the  soil  and  affect  its  potential  fertility 
entirely  irrespective  of  the  added  plant  food. 
In  other  words,  the  soil  has  been  changed  in 
many  prominent  characteristics  even  before 
any  crop  is  planted  therein. 

"I  must  not  leave  this  subject  of  fertilizer 
action,  in  view  of  the  preceding  paper,  with- 
out saying  that  the  Bureau  of  Soils  takes  an 
advanced  stand  not  only  on  the  present  use 
of  fertilizers,  but  on  their  extension  in  agri- 
culture, in  spite  of  the  reiterated  statements 
to  the  contrary." 

"We  believe  that  these  additional — note 
particularly  that  I  say  additional — actions  ex- 
plain more  fully  the  function  of  fertilizers  in 
agriculture.  From  the  former  view  the  ap- 
plication of  fertilizers  would  be  restricted  to 
poor  and  so-called  exhausted  soils  and  poor 
systems  of  agriculture;  from  the  latter  view- 
point, fertilizers  are  indicated  as  well  for  fer- 
tile as  for  infertile  soils,  as  an  adjunct  to 


SOIL    SANITATION  297 

successful  farming  and  bringing  the  soil  to 
its  highest  capacity  of  crop  production." 

In  addition  to  the  injurious  substances  to 
be  found  in  soils,  there  are  others,  such  as 
creatinine,  which  seem  to  exercise  a  positive 
tonic  action  on  crops.  Among  these  are  many 
nitrogenous  substances  which  seem  to  be  the 
result  either  of  root  excreta  of  growing  plants, 
or  the  result  of  the  decomposition  of  green 
manures,  barnyard  manure,  and  many  other 
organic  compounds  used  as  fertilizers.  Legum- 
inous crops  are  especially  rich  in  some  of  these 
rare  compounds,  and  the  isolation  of  these 
substances  from  soils  growing  legumes  adds 
another  argument  to  the  sum  of  benefits  of  a 
practice  thousands  of  years  old. 

As  to  the  origin  of  this  class  of  compounds, 
both  toxic  and  tonic,  little  definite  is  known. 
It  is  certain  that  several  of  the  compounds 
are  the  result  of  root  excretions.  Others  re- 
sult from  the  breaking  down  of  organic  debris 
present  in  the  soil  independent  of  that  left  by 
crops.  Still  others  are  the  result  of  the  debris 
left  by  roots  of  plants,  and  whether  or  not,  in 
this  connection,  each  family  of  plants  actually 
does  leave  in  the  soil  residues  inimical  to  its 


298      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

own  kind  is  mere  speculation.  In  the  case 
of  cow-peas  the  facts  seem  to  warrant  such  an 
assumption. 

This  phase  of  the  researches  of  the  Ameri- 
can scientists  has  met  with  even  more  skepti- 
cism than  that  pertaining  to  the  "immutable 
assets."  Yet  the  opponents  come  to  the  line 
of  battle  singularly  ignorant,  because  the 
United  States  Bureau  of  Soils  is  many  years 
ahead  of  the  others  in  research  along  these 
lines.  In  fact,  all  of  the  original  research  that 
has  been  conducted  to  this  day  has  been  on  the 
part  of  the  Americans,  working  in  their  Wash- 
ington laboratories. 

The  position  of  the  opponents  is  that  of  ag- 
nostics. They  do  not  know.  Therefore,  they 
do  not  believe.  Scientists  of  Rothamsted  are 
inclined  to  dismiss  the  postulates  without  ar- 
gument. So  far  as  their  personal  knowledge 
extends,  there  are  but  two  classes  of  soil — 
soils  that  are  sour  and  soils  that  are  sweet — 
in  other  words,  soils  containing  a  sufficiency 
of  calcium  carbonate  and  soils  deficient  in  this 
element. 

They  are  inclined  to  believe  that  many  of 
the  phenomena  listed  by  the  Americans  as  due 
to  organic  toxins  in  soils  are  due  merely  to  a 


SOIL    SANITATION  299 

"sour"  condition  of  these  soils.  The  mere  fact 
that  in  the  majority  of  cases  lime  restores  such 
soils  to  fertility  is  sufficient  proof  to  their 
minds  that  such  soils  are  simply  "sour." 

The  answer  to  such  a  contention  is,  of 
course,  obvious,  no  matter  what  ground  a 
student  may  take  as  to  the  value  of  these  re- 
searches of  the  Americans.  Lime,  it  is  true, 
does  remedy  matters  in  most  instances.  But 
many  other  compounds  have  the  same  prop- 
erty. And  the  majority  of  these  compounds 
do  not  possess  the  additional  property  of 
rendering  sour  soils  sweet.  Green  crops,  for 
instance,  will  render  soils  acid,  yet  they  have 
the  property  of  accomplishing  the  same  re- 
sults with  many  of  these  toxins  as  lime.  In 
the  case  of  the  Agdell  field  at  Rothamsted, 
where  simple  rotation  without  manures  of  any 
kind  grows  more  wheat  than  continuous  crop- 
ping with  complete  fertilizers,  the  men  of 
Rothamsted  station  say: 

"We  cannot  accept  the  explanation  of  the 
Americans,  yet  we  have  no  theory  to  offer  in 
exchange." 


CONCLUSION 

It  is  remarkable  that  two  such  widely 
divergent  explanations  of  the  fundamentals  of 
soil  fertility  as  the  Liebig  theory  and  the  more 
recent  hypothesis  of  the  American  scientists 
should  have  any  common  meeting  ground. 

Yet  the  two  systems  advocate  identical 
methods,  and,  with  the  exception  of  that 
phase  of  the  subject  dealing  with  soil  toxins, 
they  are  founded  on  the  same  historical  data. 
It  is  not  how  our  Jeremiahs  shall  farm  that 
is  in  dispute.  So  far  as  the  farmer  in  the 
field  is  concerned,  he  may  go  on  following 
accepted  traditions  in  agriculture  and  the 
chances  are  that  he  will  never  come  violently 
in  contact  with  either  theory,  either  as  cause 
or  effect. 

Agriculture  as  a  science  is  of  recent  origin; 
whereas  agriculture  as  an  art  dates  back  to 
the  beginning  of  history  and  has  accumulated 
a  mass  of  tradition  founded  on  experience, 
which  science  seeks  to  explain  and  extend.  As 

300 


CONCLUSION  301 

an  example,  take  the  growing  of  clover  in  the 
farm  rotation.  For  several  hundred  years  the 
farmers  of  the  Far  East  have  made  a  practice 
of  growing  clover  and  grain  in  alternate  rows. 
The  rationale  of  the  practice  was  simply  that 
they  had  discovered,  in  terms  of  money  loss  or 
gain,  that  grain  removed  an  element  from  the 
soil  which  the  legume  restored.  It  was  not 
necessary  for  them  to  "take  the  works  apart" 
to  find  out  what  made  the  wheels  go  round. 
It  was  quite  sufficient  to  them  that  good  re- 
sults did  follow  such  practice,  as  time  had 
verified  to  their  satisfaction. 

The  Western  nation,  however,  is  not  satis- 
fied to  see  an  effect  without  investigating  the 
cause.  Hellriegel  took  the  works  apart,  so  to 
speak,  and  showed  us  that  the  root  nodules  of 
the  legumes  contained  nitrogen-fixing  bacteria. 
With  this  secret  in  hand,  we  were  able  to  iso- 
late the  families  of  bacteria  peculiar  to  each 
legume,  and,  once  having  isolated  them,  to 
propagate  them  and  scatter  them  on  our 
plowed  fields  in  profusion. 

Nevertheless,  having  learned  the  why  of  the 
process,  still  we  have  not  been  able  to  surpass 
the  farmer  of  Asia  in  the  intelligent  use  of 
legumes.    Every  advance  that  science  suggests 


302      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

we  find  already  in  practice  among  these  won- 
derful people  not  as  science,  but  as  art. 

The  rotation  of  crops  is  indicated  as  neces- 
sary to  successful  farming  for  the  purpose  of 
keeping  the  fields  clean  and  free  from  noxious 
weeds,  even  aside  from  any  scientific  theory 
regarding  the  balance  of  available  mineral 
nutrients  or  the  eradication  of  soil  toxins. 

Tillage  conserves  moisture,  and  the  farmer 
will  continue  to  cultivate  his  land,  satisfied 
with  the  good  effects  to  be  derived  therefrom, 
and  meantime  the  different  schools  may  fight 
out  the  problem  of  whether  tillage  has  the 
additional  function  of  liberating  "plant-food" 
or  acts  as  a  sterilizing  agent  to  rid  a  soil  of 
noxious  compounds. 

Live-stock  farming  will  always  represent  the 
highest  efficiency  in  agriculture,  no  matter 
what  the  cause  may  be  determined  to  be  by 
science  in  the  end.  If  the  application  of  or- 
ganic manures,  including  green  crops  plowed 
under,  owes  its  good  effects  to  the  "plant 
food"  as  such,  or  to  its  power  of  oxidation 
(sterilizing)  and  nitrifying,  or  to  a  middle 
ground  embracing  the  two,  the  practice  still 
remains  established.  So  with  the  use  of  lime 
and  the  mineral   fertilizers,   including  phos- 


CONCLUSION  503 

phoric  acid  and  the  salts  of  potash.  There 
is  no  quarrel  over  the  practice. 

One  point,  however,  stands  out  clearly,  and 
that  is  that  the  use  of  minerals  as  fertilizers, 
whatever  may  be  their  effect,  is  little  under- 
stood by  either  side  of  the  controversy,  and  a 
great  deal  of  money  is  being  wasted  by  their 
indiscriminate  use.  The  fact  that  in  a  long 
series  of  tests  ninety-six  soils  out  of  every  one 
hundred  responded  better  to  organic  manures 
and  lime  than  to  phosphoric  acid  and  potash, 
while  only  four  soils  out  of  every  one  hundred 
favored  the  minerals,  should  indicate  to  the 
farmer  that  the  evidence  at  the  present  time 
is  overwhelmingly  in  favor  of  the  organic 
manures. 

Hopkins,  the  most  advanced  of  the  ad- 
herents to  the  theory  of  Liebig,  says  the  farmer 
need  add  only  phosphoric  acid  if  he  practice 
the  accepted  system  of  farming.  The  organic 
manures  and  the  microflora  and  fauna  of  the 
soil,  properly  controlled,  provide  nitrogen; 
and  potash,  except  in  rare  instances,  such  as 
some  reclaimed  swamp  soils,  is  not  wanting. 
Yet,  if  the  farmer  seek  among  the  records,  he 
finds  plenty  of  data  which  seems  to  indicate 
potash,  as,  for  instance,  in  coloring  fruit. 


304      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

In  tabulating  the  results  of  thousands  of  ex- 
periments with  mineral  fertilizing,  conducted 
by  official  experiment  stations,  the  experts  of 
the  Bureau  of  Soils  made  the  interesting  dis- 
covery that,  in  the  majority  of  instances  where 
increased  yields  of  different  crops  were  at- 
tained, the  cost  of  the  commercial  fertilizers 
was  more  than  the  value  of  the  increase  in 
yield.  The  same  set  of  experiments,  however, 
showed  that  smaller  amount  of  fertilizers,  ap- 
plied in  combinations  of  three,  two,  or  one 
ingredient  for  different  conditions,  would  have 
brought  about  the  same  increase.  If  it  costs 
more  to  carry  coal  to  Newcastle  than  the  car- 
rier can  get  for  the  coal,  the  practice  is  futile, 
no  matter  on  what  theory  it  may  be  urged. 

The  question  the  farmer  asks  himself  is,  does 
it  pay?  Does  it  pay  to-day  and  will  it  pay 
to-morrow?  He  is  not  an  idealist.  He  is  in 
the  highest  sense  a  business  man  engaged  in 
manufacturing  a  commodity,  food,  for  which 
there  is  a  definite  demand.  If  it  costs  him 
more  to  feed  his  soil  than  he  can  recover  in 
dollars  and  cents  he  will  go  out  of  business. 
He  will  not  wait  for  the  soil  to  quit.  He  is 
subsidized,  but  not  to  that  extent. 

The  American  farmer  possesses  to-day  a 


CONCLUSION  305 

knowledge  of  all  the  practices  in  the  art  of 
agriculture  which  have  enabled  older  nations 
to  meet  growing  demands  of  hunger.  If 
science  should  stand  still,  in  fact,  if  the  science 
of  agriculture  should  be  expunged,  still  there 
exist  traditions  which  give  the  secret  of  feed- 
ing ten  or  twenty  times  as  many  people  to 
the  square  mile  as  we  are  feeding  to-day. 
We  are  coming  to  look  to  the  people  of  the 
Far  East  more  and  more,  and  in  time  it  will 
become  a  national  function  to  study  these 
people  and  set  forth  their  precepts  and  ex- 
amples for  the  benefit  of  our  Jeremiahs. 
Only  in  recent  years  have  we  come  to  view 
anxiously  the  vast  quantities  of  silt  carried  to 
the  sea  and  irretrievably  lost  by  our  rivers. 
We  are  told  that  4,100  years  ago  Emperor 
Yao  appointed  the  Great  Yu  "superintendent 
of  the  works"  in  China  to  conserve  the  waste 
of  flood,  and  he  devised  a  system  of  canaliza- 
tion and  impounding  the  surplus  water  of 
freshets,  so  that  the  erosion  of  mountains 
might  be  used  to  build  delta  land  at  the  lower 
levels.  King  tells  us  that  many  of  the  cities 
of  China  have  been  steadily  moving  away 
from  the  seashore  where  they  were  originally 
built  by  this   conservation   of  the   waste   of 


306      THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW 

erosion,  until  now  one  travels  for  fifty  miles 
in  some  instances  through  fertile  fields  from 
the  sea  to  the  city  that  was  once  a  seaport. 
Japanese  fields  are  ridged  into  basins  to  catch 
the  erosion  from  the  surrounding  hills.  Sur- 
plus water  must  pass  through  their  soils  in- 
stead of  over  them,  and  in  percolating  it  must 
leave  behind  its  burden  of  silt  instead  of  carry- 
ing more  away. 

First  the  utilization  of  every  foot  of  avail- 
able land;  then  the  adaptation  of  crops  to  the 
soil  and  climate  and  intensive  cultivation  by  a 
combination  of  dry-land  methods  and  irriga- 
tion; and  then  maintaining  the  organic  con- 
tent of  the  land  by  a  religious  conservation  of 
waste.  By  these  means  the  people  of  the  East 
manage  to  live  in  contentment  with  no  thought 
of  impending  doom  after  more  than  four  thou- ' 
sand  years.  Whatever  may  be  the  explanation 
of  the  fact  that  Chinese  soils  have  not  worn 
out,  it  is  certain  that  sooner  or  later  the  West 
will  be  forced  to  adopt  similar  measures  to  in- 
crease the  productivity  of  their  acres.  We 
preach  that  live-stock  farming  is  the  highest 
form  of  agriculture  because  it  enables  us  to 
return  the  animal  excrement  to  the  fields;  yet 
in  our  cities  we  are  expending  huge  sums  an- 


CONCLUSION  307 

nually  to  dispose  of  sewage,  the  highest  and 
most  active  form  of  "fertihzer." 

If  we  can  judge  by  the  history  of  other 
nations,  the  problems  of  the  next  few  hundred 
years,  so  far  as  food  supply  is  concerned,  are 
not  in  the  least  terrifying.  Compared  with  the 
older  nations,  the  American  farmer  has  not 
yet  begun  to  farm.  Without  intensifying  his 
methods,  the  American  farmer  still  possesses 
enough  raw  land  to  support  twice  the  popula- 
tion he  is  supporting  to-day.  In  another  fifty 
years  we  will  have  attained  this  population  at 
the  present  rate  of  increase. 

Of  the  land  nominally  in  farms  at  the  pres- 
ent day,  there  are  available  ten  acres  to  feed 
one  human  being.  The  millions  of  China 
thrive  in  content,  with  an  allotment  of  less  than 
one-half  acre  to  every  soul,  and  when  we  shall 
have  attained  a  population  ten  times  as  dense 
as  it  is  to-day,  when  we  shall  have  crossed  the 
billion  mark,  still  we  will  possess  twice  as 
much  food  resources  measured  in  terms  of 
cultivable  land  as  does  Japan  at  the  present 
day. 

In  Germany  the  services  of  one  farm  laborer 
are  required  for  every  nine  acres  of  land.  In 
the  United  States  our  speed  is  still  so  slow 


308      THE   FARMER   OF  T0-:M0RR0W 

that  one  laborer  takes  care  of  forty  acres  of 
land. 

How  much  food  will  an  acre  produce?  We 
have  no  means  of  measuring  this  except  by- 
examining  the  most  crowded  acres  of  the 
world.  Professor  F.  H.  King  relates  an  in- 
stance he  encountered  in  China,  by  no  means 
unusual  in  that  country,  of  a  plot  of  2%  acres 
supporting  a  farmer  and  his  family  of  twelve, 
with  one  donkey,  one  cow,  and  two  pigs. 
This  means  a  density  of  3,072  human  beings, 
256  donkeys,  256  cattle,  and  512  swine  to  the 
square  mile.  Japan  maintained  a  population 
of  47,000,000  in  1907  on  the  food  produced 
by  20,000  square  miles  of  cultivated  land,  or 
at  the  rate  of  three  people  to  the  acre  and 
2,349  to  the  square  mile.  Draw  a  line,  says 
Professor  King,  from  Chicago  to  the  Gulf 
and  another  to  the  western  boundary  of 
Kansas  and  complete  the  rectangle  thus 
formed  and  we  have  the  area  of  cultivated 
land  from  which  the  500,000,000  of  China, 
Japan  and  Corea  get  their  food. 

Viewed  in  the  light  of  these  comparisons, 
the  exhaustion  of  the  resources  of  our  soil  is 
remote  indeed. 

THE  END. 


'T'HE  following  pages  contain  advertisements    of  a 
■^    few  of  the  Macmillan  books  on  kindred  subjects. 


Warren's  Elements  of  Agriculture 

By  G.  F.  WARREN,  Professor  of  Farm  Management  and 
Farm  Crops,  New  York  State  College  of  Agriculture  at  Cor- 
nell University 

Cloth,  i2mo,  4^6  pages,  $/.io  net 

Written  by  Professor  G.  F.  Warren,  who  is  in  charge  of  the  Department  of 
Farm  Management  and  Farm  Crops  in  the  New  York  State  College  of  Agri- 
culture, Cornell  University,  an  authority  on  questions  pertaining  to  practical 
agriculture. 

Professor  Warren  is,  moreover,  a  farmer.  He  grew  up  on  a  farm  in  the  mid- 
dle West  and  is  living  at  the  present  time  on  a  farm  of  three  hundred  and 
eighteen  acres,  which  he  supervises  in  connection  with  his  work  at  the  Univer- 
sity. 

The  "  Elements  of  Agriculture  "  is  a  text  that  does  not  "  talk  down  "  to  the 
pupil.  It  gives  agriculture  rank  beside  physics,  mathematics,  and  the  languages 
as  a  dignified  subject  for  the  course  of  study. 

In  Warren's  *'  Elements  of  Agriculture  "  there  is  no  waste  space.  It  is  writ- 
ten with  the  ease  that  characterizes  a  writer  at  home  in  his  subject,  and  it  is 
written  in  a  style  pedagogically  correct.  The  author  has  been  a  teacher  of  high 
school  boys  and  girls  and  knows  how  to  present  his  subject  to  them. 

Experts  in  the  teaching  of  agriculture  the  country  over  have  been  unanimous 
in  praise  of  the  text. 

Mr.  J.  E.  Blair,  Supt.  of  Schools,  Conicana,  Texas  : 

"An  examination  of  Warren's  '  Elements  of  Agriculture'  convinces  me  that 
it  is  a  book  of  uncommon  merit  for  secondary  schools  as  well  as  for  the  private 
student.  It  is  thoroughly  scientific  in  matter,  and  is  written  in  an  attractive 
style,  that  cannot  fail  to  please  as  well  as  instruct." 

Supt.  E.  S.  Smith,  Whiting,  Iowa  : 

"  I  am  very  much  pleased  with  Warren's  '  Elements  of  Agriculture.'  In  my 
opinion  it  is  the  only  book  on  the  market  that  presents  the  work  of  agriculture 
suitably  for  high  schools;  too  many  books  are  too  simple  and  do  not  give 
enough  work ;  a  book  for  high  schools  must  be  more  than  a  primer." 


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Edited  by  Professor  L.  H.  BAILEY,  Director  of  the  New  York 
State  School  of  Agriculture  at  Cornell  University 


Sheep  Farming 

By  JOHN  A.  CRAIG  and  F.  R.  MARSHALL 

Illusirated.     Cloth,  izmo,  $/.jo  net 

This  book  deals  with  sheep  husbandry  as  a  phase  of  intensive  fanning. 
Recognizing  that  it  is  likely  to  be  used  by  persons  unfamiliar  with  sheep, 
the  authors  have  worked  from  the  standpoint  of  the  producer  of  the  market 
stock  rather  than  from  the  standpoint  of  the  professional  breeder.  The 
various  breeds  are  discussed  in  such  a  way  as  to  enable  the  reader  to  select 
the  kind  that  is  most  likely  to  do  well  under  his  conditions  and  to  acquaint 
him  with  the  care  it  is  accustomed  to  and  needs.  The  management  of  the 
flock  in  the  fall,  winter,  spring,  and  summer  seasons,  the  formation  of  the 
flock,  the  selection  of  foundation  stock,  and  the  means  of  maintaining  a 
high  standard  of  flock  efficiency  are  all  discussed  in  subsequent  chapters. 

Principles  of  Fruit  Growing 

By  Professor  L.  H,  BAILEY 

New  edition.     Cloth,  izmo,  $/.jo  net 

■  Since  the  original  publication  of  this  book,  in  1897,  it  has  gone  through 
many  editions.  The  progress  of  fruit  growing  in  the  meantime  has  been 
very  marked  and  it  has  been  necessary  to  completely  rewrite  the  work. 
The  present  issue  of  it  brings  the  accounts  of  the  new  practices  and  discov- 
eries as  they  relate  to  fruit  growing  up  to  date.  All  of  the  text  and  practi- 
cally all  of  the  illustrations  are  new. 


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i 


RURAL  SCIENCE  SERIES  —  Continued 

Fruit  Insects 

By  M.  V.  SLINGERLAND  and  C.  R.  CROSBY 

Illustrated.     Cloth,  ismo,  $i.jo  net 

This  is  a  practical  account  of  the  principal  insects  in  this  country  which 
attack  the  different  kinds  of  fruits  —  trees,  fruits,  small  fruits,  cranberries, 
grapes,  and  the  like.  It  presents  a  full  but  brief  outline  life  history  of  the 
leading  insects,  together  with  the  methods  of  control. 


Milk  and  Its  Products 

By  HENRY  H.  WING,  Professor  of  Dairy  Husbandry  in 
Cornell  University 

New  revised  edition.     With  new  illustrations.     Cloth,  i2mo,  $1.50  net 

The  revolution  in  dairy  practice,  brought  about  by  the  introduction  of  the 
centrifugal  cream  separator  and  the  Babcock  test  for  fat,  by  a  more  definite 
knowledge  regarding  the  various  fermentations  that  so  greatly  influence 
milk,  and  the  manufacture  of  its  products,  have  demanded  the  publication 
of  a  book  that  shall  give  to  the  dairyman,  and  particularly  to  the  dairy  stu- 
dent, in  simple,  concise  form,  the  principles  underlying  modern  dairy 
practice.  Such  has  been  Professor  Wing's  purpose  in  this  work.  This  is 
not  a  new  edition  of  the  author's  very  successful  volume  published  under 
the  same  title  many  years  ago;  it  is,  in  reality,  an  entirely  new  book,  hav- 
ing been  wholly  reset  and  enlarged  by  the  addition  of  new  matter,  both  text 
and  illustrations.  The  author's  aim  has  been  at  all  times  to  give  the 
present  state  of  knowledge  as  supported  by  the  weight  of  evidence  and  the 
opinions  of  those  whose  authority  is  highest. 


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Cooperation  in  Agriculture 

By  G.  HAROLD  POWELL 

lUtistrated.     Cloth,  izmo,  $i.jo  net 

This  book  deals  with  the  general  principles  of  cooperation.  How  to 
organize  cooperative  societies,  how  to  finance  them,  simple  organizations 
and  constitutional  documents,  by-laws,  and  general  advice  as  to  the  admin- 
istration of  the  associations  or  societies  are  all  considered.  The  author 
describes  at  some  length  the  most  famous  organizations,  such  as  those 
which  are  handling  citrus  fruits  in  California,  the  farmers'  grain  elevators 
systems,  and  the  present  cooperation  in  the  creamery  and  butter  business. 
It  is,  in  other  words,  a  practical  guide  for  those  who  desire  to  organize 
cooperative  societies  and  who  wish  to  escape  the  usual  pitlalls. 

Farm  Forestry 

By  E.  G.  CHEYNEY 

Illustrated.     Cloth,  izmo,  $i.jo  net 

This  book  deals  with  the  place  of  the  wood  lot  or  farm  forest  in  the  scheme 
of  fanning,  with  the  planting,  care,  and  harvesting  of  timber  on  lands,  with 
the  different  species  of  trees  that  may  be  used,  their  relations  or  associa- 
tions in  a  forest  plantation,  the  rate  of  growth,  the  profits  to  be  exp>ected 
and  the  principal  difficulties  that  are  usually  encountered.  It  is  profusely 
illustrated. 

Forage  Crops  for  the  South 

By  S.  M.  TRACY 

Illustrated.     Cloth,  izmo,  $i.jo  net 

Professor  Tracy  has  had  long  experience  in  Southern  agriculture,  both  in 
application  and  in  teaching.  He  was  formerly  Professor  of  Agriculture  in 
the  Mississippi  Agricultiual  College,  and  now  conducts  a  branch  station  or 
farm  for  the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture.  He  is  a  botanist  of 
note  and  has  traveled  extensively  in  the  South  as  a  collector.  His  book  is 
not  only  authentic,  but  practical.  In  it  is  contained  a  discussion  of  all 
kinds  of  plants  and  crops  adapted  to  the  Southern  States  for  fodder,  soiling, 
pasturing,  and  hay.    The  text  is  abundantly  illustrated. 


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Edited  by  Professor  L.  H.  BAILEY,  Director  of  the  New  York  State 
School  of  Agriculture  at  Cornell  University 


Manures  and  Fertilizers 

By  H.  J.  WHEELER,  Ph.D.,  D.Sc,  Formerly  Director  of 

the  Rhode  Island  Experiment  Station. 

Illustrated.     Cloth,  isnio.     Preparing 

The  clear  and  unusually  full  discussion  of  the  practical  utilization  of  manures  and 
fertilizers  of  all  kinds,  and  of  their  relations  to  the  plant  and  to  the  soil,  makes  this 
book  not  only  an  excellent  text  for  college  students,  but  also  one  which  will  be  gen- 
erally welcomed  by  all  up-to-date  agriculturists.  All  the  animal  manures,  litter,  and 
waste  nitrogeneous  materials  of  every  sort  are  discussed.  A  helpful  feature  for  the 
student  is  the  extended  treatment  of  the  availability  of  organic  nitrogen  and  of  the 
organisms  contained  in  barnyard  manure  which  give  rise  to  the  various  fermentations 
taking  place  therein.  The  weli-known  and  also  the  new,  nitrogenous  manures  such 
as  calcium  cyanamid  and  calcium  nitrate,  are  considered  in  detail.  The  chapters  de- 
voted to  the  potash  salts,  phosphates,  lime,  magnesia,  soda,  gypsum,  iron,  and  man- 
ganese are  exceptionally  complete,  and  chlorin,  sulfur,  silica,  carbon  disulfid,  toluene, 
and  other  substances  exerting  catalytic  and  other  effects  are  described.  Much  of  the 
material  in  this  book  which  will  be  new  to  students  and  other  readers  has  suggested 
itself  to  the  author  in  the  course  of  twenty-two  years  of  continuous  research. 


Corn  Crops 


By  E.  G.  MONTGOMERY,  Professor  of  Farm  Crops  in  the 

College  of  Agriculture  at  Cornell  University. 

Preparing 

This  is  a  textbook  on  corn  and  the  sorghum  crops,  including  the  grain  sorghums,  the 
sweet  sorghums  for  syrup  or  forage,  and  the  broom  corns.  In  it  plant  structures, 
physiology,  and  the  other  technical  phases  of  the  subject  are  separated  from  the 
more  practical  phases  which  might  be  classed  as  cultural  methods.  Hence,  the  en- 
tire book  is  adapted  to  use  as  a  text  in  an  advanced  course,  and  the  treatment  of  cul- 
tural methods  is  adapted  to  use  in  more  elementary  courses.  The  book  is  also  an 
excellent  handbook  for  farmers  and  others  interested  in  the  production  or  handling 
of  corn  or  sorghums. 


Animal  Husbandry 


By  MERRITT   W.  HARPER,  Assistant  Professor  of  Ani- 
mal Husbandry  in  the  New  York  State  College. 

Illustrated.     Cloth,  i2nio.     Preparing 

This  is  a  simple,  concrete  presentation  of  the  essential  facts  concerning  farm  animals, 
adapted  for  use  in  secondary  schools. 


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Farm  Management 


By  G.  F.  WARREN,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  Farm  Management, 
New  York  State  College  of  Agriculture  at  Cornell  University. 

Illmtrated.     Cloth,  i2mo,  xx-\-_sg2  pages,  $j.7S  net 

"  Farm  Management  is  the  study  of  the  business  principles  in  farming. 
It  may  be  defined  as  the  science  of  the  organization  and  management  of  a 
farm  enterprise  for  the  purpose  of  securing  the  greatest  continuous  profit. 

"  Successful  farming  requires  good  judgment  in  choosing  a  farm  and  in 
deciding  on  a  type  of  farming.  It  demands  clear  business  organization 
and  management  for  the  efficient  use  of  capital,  labor,  horses,  and  ma- 
chinery.    It  requires  good  judgment  in  buying  and  selling. 

"  The  change  from  cheap  land,  hand  tools,  and  farming  to  raise  one's 
own  food  and  clothing,  to  farming  as  a  commercial  undertaking  has  come 
upon  us  so  suddenly  that  business  principles  are  not  always  well  under- 
stood by  farmers.  Nor  do  those  who  understand  the  application  of  such 
principles  to  city  conditions  often  know  how  to  apply  them  on  the  farm. 

"  Long  ages  of  experience  and  a  generation  of  scientific  research  have 
resulted  in  a  fund  of  popular  knowledge  on  how  to  raise  crops  and  animals. 
But  there  is  less  background  of  tradition  concerning  business  methods  on 
the  farm,  and  colleges  have  given  little  attention  to  this  kind  of  problem. 
The  success  of  the  individual  farmer  is  as  much  dependent  on  the  applica- 
tion of  business  principles  as  it  is  on  crop  yields  and  production  of  animals. 

"  The  best  way  to  find  out  what  methods  of  farm  organization  and  man- 
agement are  most  successful  is  to  study  the  methods  now  used  and  the 
profits  secured  on  large  numbers  of  farms,  and  determine  how  the  more 
successful  ones  differ  from  the  less  successful,  and  find  to  which  of  the 
differences  the  success  is  due.  After  such  principles  are  found,  they  need 
to  be  tested  by  use  in  reorganizing  farms. 

"  The  conclusions  in  this  book  are  based  on  investigations  of  the  kind 
given  above,  and  on  cost  accounts,  census  data,  travel  and  study  in  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  United  States  and  experience  in  farming.  It  is  hoped  that 
the  conclusions  may  be  of  use  to  farmers  and  students."  —  Preface. 


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